The fourth season of Tulsa King is back with a heart-wrenching twist for several characters involved in the story led by Sylvester Stallone, and it was precisely the actor himself, in a recent interview, who clarified the reasons behind that narrative decision. Debuting on streaming in 2022 as a new creation by Taylor Sheridan, Tulsa King chose from the outset a strong name to tell the story of a character of equal weight: Dwight Manfredi, known as The General, who is well placed within a criminal milieu that operates in Tulsa, but, ahead of the fourth season, the setting shifts to New York, foreshadowing major upheavals. It was Stallone himself who shared more details.
Warning: what follows will refer to what happened in the first episode of the fourth season of Tulsa King on streaming on Paramount+, so those who are not up to date with the schedule and who do not want detailed spoilers should come back later to read this article.
Tulsa King 4, the return is explosive: Sylvester Stallone explains the reasons behind that heart-wrenching twist (SPOILER)
Everything seemed to be looking good for Dwight until it wasn’t. The first episode of the fourth season appeared to start off on a high note for the protagonist and his crew, only to end with a twist that once again shuffled the deck, leaving Dwight without an ally and without a romantic partner.
In New York for the bosses’ meeting, Dwight manages to return to Tulsa safe and sound, unlike Margaret and Governor Thresher, played respectively by Dana Delany and Neal McDonough, who do not survive an airplane crash. Dwight learns what happened from Joanne, who informs him of the plane’s crash into the Pacific Ocean. A major twist and one that Sylvester Stallone justifies promptly. On the microphones of Entertainment Weekly, the actor specified: You haven’t seen anything yet. It becomes really crazy. Then he added:
I wanted people to stay with their mouths agape. Like: ‘What, how? So fast?’ Speaking as a writer, that relationship had exhausted its resources. And even that wouldn’t have provided enough dramatic material. And then with the governor, I think Neal McDonough is fantastic, but we’ve done it all. Taking those two out, his world is completely flipped. A new government, no girlfriend, pain and constant reminders that it’s his fault, because he brought her into politics. So he’s going through all of this.
Stallone has compared Tulsa King to Rocky: “I’ve had to do that already with Rocky Balboa. Let me say, pulling Adriana out required about seven drafts in which she was still alive before I finally said: ‘This will make the movie really hard for him, it will change the tone completely. Otherwise it will be like the other Rockies.’ So killing Margaret was a major decision and I want the audience to be a little angry about it. I want them to think: ‘But why did you do that, Sly?’ Well, you’ll see. Hate me if you want.” Margaret’s death will trigger an explosion of emotions in Dwight, the actor teased: “He has to do it. Because as you grow, you tend to suppress your emotions, like it’s not worth it. For him it’s exactly the opposite: he must find meaning. Her meaning was her, and now she’s gone. We’re about to start the fifth season, so here’s a little tip: it will be catastrophic, because I’d put it in the ‘beware what you wish for’ category. Dwight gets what he wants, and it isn’t easy for everyone. So it’s only a crescendo, and something really crazy is about to happen.” The fifth season has already been renewed, after all.
Also the producer and showrunner Terence Winter commented on the drastic decision taken regarding Margaret and Cal to the microphones of TV Insider: “We wanted to put Dwight in the most vulnerable position possible, not only from the point of view of danger, but also emotionally. Losing someone you deeply care about under such tragic circumstances truly knocks him off his moral pedestal… it destroys him completely on an emotional level. He has to start over.”
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