World War I has come and gone since we last saw John Dutton as a child. His younger brother, Spencer (Brandon Sklenar), fought in the war, and is currently out of the country, trying to deal with his PTSD (not that they called it that back then). I asked Dale if John had fought as well, and though he couldn’t tell me many details, he did speak about creating a character backstory with someone like series and franchise creator Taylor Sheridan, who doesn’t often let actors know all the details:
“What you’re dealing with is a 40-year gap here between ‘1883’ and ‘1923.’ And Marley and I, we actually had to talk about this: What happened in those 40 years? What are you filling in? And we get into this area of what’s written on the page and what’s also the work that we do [ourselves].
“I like to keep a lot of things personal, also because I could think one thing, and then Taylor’s going to write something else the next day. Then all that work goes out the window. But part of the fun is showing up to work. And then those cameras roll, and you get to see all these actors and what they bring to it. Certain things I’m not going to tell you.”
It’s pretty mysterious, but it would stand to reason that he fought as well. When the show picks up, though, John is working on the Dutton ranch as the second-in-command to his uncle Jacob.