Taylor Sheridan’s Marvel Critique Lands On His Own Call of Duty Movie

Taylor Sheridan, the showrunner whose name has been stitched into Paramount’s TV strategy for the better part of a decade, used his latest podcast appearance to take aim at Marvel’s movies, calling them a parade of information dumps that break the most basic rule of storytelling. The timing is awkward. Sheridan is co-writing Paramount’s upcoming Call of Duty film with director Peter Berg, who twelve years ago told Esquire that people who play Call of Duty are “pathetic” and “weak.”

The full exchange aired Sunday on Sheridan’s full podcast appearance. Simmons’ guest was ostensibly there to promote a new book, How Not To Die In Prison; instead the Yellowstone creator spent nearly an hour explaining, in patient, profanity-laced detail, why so much of modern Hollywood drama fails the show-don’t-tell test.

The Show-Me Rule, Stated In Three Long Sentences

Sheridan did not hedge on The Bill Simmons Podcast. The Yellowstone creator, whose work has kept Paramount+ in the conversation, made his case in patient, profanity-laced detail. He began with what he wanted to do differently when he moved from acting to writing. “I knew when I started writing [I wanted] to simply not do what everyone else was doing. What everyone else was doing was taking shortcuts, essentially breaking all the very basic fundamental rules of storytelling, because they couldn’t figure out their story,” he told Simmons.

He pinned the rule in one long sentence. With a movie, he said, you are supposed to show me what’s happening; the camera is supposed to move the story; the dialogue is supposed to tell the audience how the people in this world feel about what’s happening or what they hope to do or what they wish they hadn’t done or had done.

Marvel, he argued, breaks the rule on loop. The studio’s films, he said, rely on dialogue that should be carried by the camera. “All these Marvel movies do it, ad nauseam. Where they will just have information dumps that you have to follow to get to the action rather than actually moving plot with action,” he said.

When Steve McQueen Still Worked The Lot

Sheridan’s vision of the past is older than the franchise he is criticizing. He told Simmons he misses the era when Steve McQueen was a movie star at Paramount and Bobby Evans ran the studio. “It didn’t used to be this way when Steve McQueen was a movie star at Paramount and Bobby Evans ran the studio because writers were turned loose. Directors were turned completely loose. There weren’t endless rewrites. There weren’t meetings with executives about tone and mood and all this nonsense,” he said.

The executives now in those meetings, he told Simmons, are marketers in title, not storytellers. They came up through the CAA or WME mailroom, he said, then through attrition ended up as head of development, and they “know nothing” about developing a story. “So they get terrified, panicked that the audience won’t get it because they actually have no storytellers,” he said.

The Movie Already On His Calendar

That rule arrives with a built-in stress test. Variety reported in October 2025 that Sheridan and Berg had boarded Paramount’s live-action Call of Duty film for Paramount and Activision, with the pair co-writing and Berg directing. The franchise encompasses more than 30 mainline games released since the original debuted in 2003, and the deal includes the potential for Paramount to expand the universe across film and TV.

Sheridan’s film credits make the assignment make sense. He earned an Oscar nomination for writing “Hell or High Water” and also penned “Wind River,” “Sicario,” and its sequel “Sicario: Day of the Soldado.” Berg’s resume, which includes “Friday Night Lights,” “Lone Survivor,” and “Deepwater Horizon,” matches the brief on action and procedure.

What the announcement does not show is whether the film will pass the rule Sheridan just announced. The pair have not released plot details; the first-person-shooter series is built around escalating set pieces that depend on on-screen threat, the kind of work that should survive the show-me test on paper.

Call of Duty is set to hit theaters in 2028, per Kotaku.

• 30+ mainline Call of Duty games released since 2003 (Variety, Oct 2025)
• 2028 theatrical release date (Kotaku, late 2025)
• Sheridan and Berg co-writing; Berg directing (Variety, Oct 2025)
• Activision owns the franchise; Microsoft owns Activision (Variety, Oct 2025)
• Deal includes potential expansion across film and TV (Variety, Oct 2025)

Peter Berg’s Verdict, Sitting On Tape For A Decade

The deeper squeeze belongs to Peter Berg. In a 2013 Esquire interview, conducted fresh off directing “Battleship,” Berg was asked about military video games. He answered without cushion and reserved the narrowest of exemptions. He said he found four-hour gaming sessions weak.

Pathetic. Pathetic. Keyboard courage. Can’t stand it. The only people that I give a Call of Duty get-out-of-jail-free card to are the military. They’re out there serving and they’re bored and they want to entertain themselves? Okay, maybe. Kids? Uh-uh.

Peter Berg, who will direct Paramount’s Call of Duty film, said those words in a 2013 Esquire interview that the resurfaced 2013 interview of Berg covers. The Kotaku piece ran with the headline “CoD Movie Director Previously Said Playing Games Is Pathetic.” Berg’s quotes had sat in Esquire’s archive for twelve years before they were tied to a Call of Duty film.

Either way, the standard Sheridan set on the podcast applies. Berg will direct a film based on a franchise he called pathetic and weak in 2013. Sheridan will write it having just told podcast listeners that films must let the camera carry the story.

The Yellowstone Pipeline That Still Carries Him

Filmmaking is now a fraction of Sheridan’s footprint, and his Paramount+ output has been the platform’s anchor programming for years. Yellowstone alone has spawned 1883, 1923, Dutton Ranch, and Marshals, and his other Paramount+ slate includes Landman, Tulsa King, Special Ops: Lioness, Mayor of Kingstown, The Madison, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, and Frisco King. The Madison, his most recent Paramount+ drama with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, drew a mixed critical reception at launch.

Sheridan also told Simmons he is not trying to win Emmys. The remark landed three weeks after Paramount held an FYC event, All Trails Lead Here, for Landman and The Madison, with Billy Bob Thornton, Andy Garcia, and Sam Elliott in attendance. He framed the goal plainly: sit somebody on their couch and move them, make them think, make them laugh, scare the shit out of them, excite them. “That’s what I want from a show,” he said. The NBCUniversal contract that succeeds his Paramount deal is worth as much as $1 billion, with a five-year term starting in 2029, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Holding His Own Film To His Own Standard

The studio he just left is the studio that owns his next movie. Call of Duty is a Paramount Skydance release, and the deal was announced the same week news of his NBCUniversal switch became public.

The film lands in a year when his showrunner output also shifts. The Madison and Landman run on Paramount+ through 2028. A third season of Lioness has been given a summer premiere date on Paramount+. New Sheridan TV work will begin flowing through NBCUniversal in 2029.

Either way, the standard Sheridan set on the podcast is the one his audience will hold his own film to. The first test arrives in 2028, the year before his NBCUniversal TV era begins. Call of Duty will be his first feature film to clear the bar he set on the podcast.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Taylor Sheridan say about Marvel movies?

Sheridan told The Bill Simmons Podcast in June 2026 that Marvel films are filled with “information dumps that you have to follow to get to the action rather than actually moving plot with action.” He argued films must let the camera carry the story instead of using dialogue to pass plot.

When did the interview air?

The exchange aired on a Sunday episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, with Deadline and Yahoo Entertainment reporting on the Marvel critique shortly after.

What is the Call of Duty movie at Paramount?

Call of Duty is a Paramount and Activision live-action film based on the military first-person-shooter franchise, which has produced more than 30 mainline games since 2003. Sheridan and Berg are co-writing the script, and the deal includes the potential for Paramount to expand the universe across film and TV.

Who is directing the Call of Duty film?

Peter Berg, whose credits include Friday Night Lights and Lone Survivor, will direct. In a 2013 Esquire interview Berg called people who play military video games “pathetic” and “weak.”

What is Sheridan’s NBCUniversal deal worth?

The Hollywood Reporter reported in October 2025 that the deal is worth as much as $1 billion, with a five-year contract starting in 2029. Sheridan will also be free to make films of all sizes with NBCU starting in 2026.