Jon Bernthal's Fiery Netflix Thriller Was The End Of An Era For Taylor Sheridan

Published Oct 26, 2026, 12:15 PM EDT

Padraig is a Senior Features Writer and has been part of Screen Rant since 2017. Padraig is a writer, editor and retired Game of Thrones extra who has been writing about movies and TV online for over a decade. He has also written for The Irish Times, Den Of Geek, Little White Lies and many more. It's pronounced Paw-rick, BTW.

A Jon Bernthal thriller that's burning up the Netflix charts also marked a major end of an era for director Taylor Sheridan. Bernthal appeared in two entries in the American Frontier trilogy, the neo-Western saga that kickstarted Taylor Sheridan's career. While Bernthal's role in both 2015's Sicario and 2017's Wind River amounted to cameos, he became something of a good luck charm for Sheridan on the big screen.

Their third and final collaboration (to date) was Those Who Wish Me Dead. This 2021 thriller could be described as Die Hard meets The Punisher, and cast Bernthal and Angelina Jolie as a deputy sheriff and a firefighter who must protect a young boy from ruthless assassins. Sheridan's movie feels like a throwback to the types of grounded, adult action thrillers of the 1990s, but it sadly came and went with little fanfare.

It got lost in the shuffle of the COVID era, but thankfully, Those Who Wish Me Dead has proved a major hit on Netflix over five years later. While not Sheridan's best work, it's a really entertaining and pulpy outing with a great cast. The movie was also produced before Sheridan became the unofficial king of television, and is still his most recent big-screen effort.

Those Who Wish Me Dead Is Taylor Sheridan's Final Movie As Director - To Date

Image credit: Emerson Miller / © Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

While Sheridan has been very active as a screenwriter, producer and occasional director on shows like Lioness or his Yellowstone prequels, he hasn't had any major involvement with a movie since 2021. Given his prolific output on the small screen, this isn't a major shock. That said, it feels like Sheridan's best work as a creative is still his film output.

He doesn't have many credits as a movie director though; outside of Those Who Wish Me Dead, he also helmed the forgotten 2011 horror Vile (a project he has essentially disowned) and Wind River. With Those Who Wish Me Dead, he proved that, alongside a talent for writing likable characters and quotable dialogue, he is a very capable action director.

Hell or High Water (2016) is the other entry in the American Frontier trilogy, and is sandwiched between Sicario and Wind River.

The fiery finale (in more ways than one) is the movie's highlight, but Sheridan stages some visceral setpieces prior to this too. While Jolie is the star the film was sold on, Bernthal is arguably the heart of Those Who Wish Me Dead. Without diving too deep into spoilery waters, Bernthal's Ethan is forced to play both sides at a certain point, and the star once again proves he is the best at playing manly but vulnerable heroes.

Taylor Sheridan Will Be Making A Big Screen Comeback In 2027

CBS

Perhaps Those Who Wish Me Dead's underperformance is what pushed Sheridan to focus on TV, but it feels like that was always his destiny. Had he started his career in the 1980s or 1990s, he may have been a craftsman of mid-budget, R-rated thrillers like the great Walter Hill (48 Hrs), but the rise of streaming saw his career head in a very different direction.

It also afforded him the clout to make expensive shows like 1883 or Lioness, and he's smart enough to take advantage of those opportunities while they last. While he still has no projects lined up as a director, he will be making a big screen as the writer and co-producer of the 2027 action thriller F.A.S.T.

This casts Sheridan's 1923 leading man, Brandon Sklenar, as a former special forces commando waging a war on drug dealers in his hometown. This screenplay was actually penned by Sheridan during the late 2010s, and he almost directed it himself, with Chris Pratt being eyed as the lead. Obviously, Sheridan's career took a big detour, but by all accounts, he wrote a great script that will finally see the light of day.

Coincidentally, F.A.S.T. will arrive exactly six years on from Those Who Wish Me Dead, with both movies being released on the same date: May 14. Sheridan will also co-pen the script for the upcoming adaptation of video game saga Call of Duty, which Peter Berg will helm. Given the skills he displayed in his most recent movie, it would have been intriguing to see Sheridan helming the adaptation himself, but alas, that wasn't to be.