In Tulsa King, Sylvester Stallone, over 75 years old, attempts a comeback in a mafia series. With some difficulties…
Tulsa King is a series produced by Paramount+ and Taylor Sheridan, released in 2022 and rebroadcast on television in France on the M6 channel in October 2024. Symptomatic of series based on the casting of seasoned movie stars, drawn from an industry known for its ageism, she stages a Sylvester Stallone septuagenarian, playing a mafioso who seems overwhelmed by the world he discovers when leaving prison.
The scenario of Tusla King ? Dwight Manfredi, the hero played by Stallone (a first name inspired by former American President Dwight Eisenhower, no less), is released after 25 years behind bars. He finds his old neighborhood in New York, now in the hands of mobsters who were children when he was arrested and tried. “There is nothing left for you here. We cannot go back in time,” the new local godfather (Domenick Lombardozzi, of The Wire). A perfect sentence for Manfredi-Stallone, who will therefore work to return to the game after being exiled to Tulsa, in the bleak confines of Oklahoma.
A scenario that allows Stallone to go back in time
To become the “King of Tulsa,” Sylvester Stallone hires a driver (Jay Will) and sets out to prove he can continue to make money even in the hinterlands, first getting in in local cannabis trafficking. Dwight does not hesitate to use violence, determined to demonstrate to the new bosses of New York that if he can make it in this hole, he will make it anywhere.
Tulsa King thus relies almost entirely on the charisma of the movie star and on the mise en abyme of yet another comeback by Stallone, seeking to prove that he is not a Hollywood has-been as his character attempts to prove that he is not a mafia has-been. Between sitcom clichés and scenes heavily inspired by Sopranothe writers did not forget to flatter the star’s ego. We will remember this passage where a woman meets Dwight Manfredi and is surprised at his old age, saying that she thought he was 55 (he then admits to being 20 years older). Whey for Sylvester Stallone.
In Tulsa Kingwe also enjoy the hero’s discovery of a world that completely changed while he was in prison. Sylvester Stallone repeatedly attempts humor, shaking his head at cell phones, credit cards and stores that don’t accept cash, his favorite way to close deals.
Accusations against Stallone on the set
But it’s not just Dwight Manfredi who seems outdated in Tulsa King. Last April, American media revealed that Paramount had opened an investigation against Sylvester Stallone, suspected of behavior from another era and of having used derogatory language towards extras on the set. The studio is based on allegations that appeared on social networks and according to which Stallone had called certain people “ugly”, “a barrel of lard” or even a “fat guy with a cane”. “Bring pretty young girls around me,” Stallone also reportedly asked the director of Tulsa Kingwhile filming for season 2 has started…
If no official complaint would have been filed at this stage, a casting manager would have already left the shoot, claiming to have “resigned because it was a clearly toxic environment in which [il] wasn’t[t] not comfortable for [lui]-self or extras.” If the matter is taken seriously, a production source told CNN that Paramount prides itself on its “fair and respectful work environment.” Craig Zisk, the director and executive producer of Tulsa Kingfor his part assured TMZ that “no insult was uttered”. To be continued.