‘Yellowstone’ Season 3 New Cast: Meet Ellis Steele & Josh Holloway’s Roarke

Paramount

Season 3 Episode 1 of Yellowstone on the Paramount Network is introducing us to two new characters: Ellis Steele and Josh Holloway’s new character, whose name we don’t yet learn. Here’s what we know about them so far.

This article includes spoilers for the Season 3 Episode 1 premiere, along with other minor spoilers from interviews with the cast. 

Ellis Steele Is Portrayed by John Emmet Tracy

Paramount

Ellis Steele has a bigger role in the Season 3 premiere than Josh Holloway’s new character. In the Season 3 premiere, we learn that he’s the lawyer representing Market Equities, a mysterious new company that’s part of Providence Hospitality Management. This is a big corporation that now owns the nearby Paradise Valley Sporting Club and has purchased Jenkins’ property. They will likely pose quite the threat to John Dutton’s land, at least Beth’s business partner Bob certainly believes so.

Near the end of the episode, Ellis Steele presents Rainwater with a cease and desist. And he threatens him, saying: “When I’m done, my client’s position will be perfectly clear.”

The actor who plays Ellis Steele is John Emmet Tracy. He has a long list of credits to his name. His credits include Batwoman (August Cartwright), Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, iZombie (Enzo Lambert), Unspeakable, Project Blue Book, Supernatural, Garage Sale Mysteries, ReBoot, Fifty Shades Freed, Altered Carbon, When Calls the Heart, Drone, Moonlight in Vermont, The Hollow Child, The Wildling, Motive, The BFG, The Devout, Olympus (Pallas), Cedar Cove, Flowers in the Attic, The Killing, Fringe, Eaux troubles du crime, Always a Bridesmaid (Nick), Sanctuary, Smallville, and more.

Josh Holloway Portrays Roarke Carter

Paramount

Many fans have been waiting for Josh Holloway’s appearance on Yellowstone. His character, Roarke Carter, appears briefly in a scene with Beth. He’s fishing and says that his family owns some land about five miles upriver. They have a lighthearted exchange, but we don’t learn his name in Episode 1. However, IMDb and plenty of cast interviews revealed his character’s name.

Holloway’s credits are many. His roles include Colony (Will Bowman), Intelligence (Gabriel Vaughn), Battle of the Year, Sabotage, Paranoia, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and Lost. Lost is perhaps his most well-known role, where he played Sawyer.

So far in the show, Roarke is more of a mystery.

Cast interview spoilers for Holloway’s character, beyond what we’ve seen on the show so far, are below. 

In an interview with USA Today, Holloway said he’s always been a fan of Kevin Costner and couldn’t wait to join the series. He has a home in Wyoming and loves horseback riding. This was the perfect fit for him. In fact, he really wanted to be on Yellowstone for quite some time.

In this season, Holloway’s character is a major antagonist for John Dutton. But he said he was cast as a Wall Street guy, not a cowboy, which was a surprise to him. But he said his character’s been shaped to have a love of the outdoors. Holloway describes his character as a “hedge-fund baller.” He said his character is the “inevitable march of progress. You can’t stop him.”

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