Tulsa King Season 4: What really happened behind the scenes of sudden crew cuts? Details explored 

The Paramount+ show Tulsa King suddenly swapped out 26 crew members, including Sylvester Stallone’s longtime stunt double, just days before Season 4 was set to start filming.

This move hit a bunch of crucial departments: stunts, sound, camera, transportation, rigging, casting, and more. Word spread fast, and people in Atlanta’s production scene started talking. Nobody really saw it coming.

Deadline confirmed that most of the crew got the news only a few weeks before they were supposed to be back on set. That stung, especially since everyone thought they were locked in after the show got renewed for two more seasons in 2024.

Freddie Poole, who has doubled for Stallone for 14 years, said he was shocked. They only offered him a photo-double job after letting him go. Speaking to the outlet, Poole revealed that he has never seen anything like this in his 30 years on the job.

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The sudden crew cuts in Tulsa King Season 4: Why did it happen?

The big shake-up for Tulsa King Season 4 hit right at the end of October 2025. At least nine departments lost crew, and 26 people out of a 600-person team suddenly found out they wouldn’t be coming back. Nobody from Paramount or 101 Studios has explained what was going on. Deadline reported that every open spot would get filled by someone new, but that is about all anyone knows.

For a lot of the folks let go, including longtime crew like Freddie Poole and Chad Gregory (who has been Stallone’s stand-in since the beginning), the news came out of nowhere. Some only found out after seeing their jobs posted online, often at better pay, before the studio even told them.

Poole told Deadline:

“I feel really bad for the Atlanta film community with just the way things went down. I’ve been in this business for 30 years, and I’ve been on shows for multiple seasons, and I’ve never seen this kind of turnover.”

Meanwhile, Gregory added:

“Look, I get it. Business is business. I’m sure there will be some who see this and say I need to stiffen up. That’s fine. You’re entitled to your opinion. But I will say this, unless you are out there getting gut punched, I don’t give a flying rip about your opinion.”

Why did this happen? It is still a mystery. Some insiders at 101 Studios called it “standard practice,” saying the people who didn’t get rehired never had contracts for Tulsa King Season 4. Others pushed back, insisting the recent wave of layoffs at Paramount (over a thousand people lost their jobs) had nothing to do with it. The studio hasn’t said a word about whether money, legal stuff, or creative changes drove the decision.

All this comes as Tulsa King faces big changes behind the scenes. Taylor Sheridan, the show’s creator, just signed a billion-dollar deal with NBCUniversal, raising the stakes at Paramount right as filming kicks off at Atlanta’s Eagle Rock Studios on November 4.

Meanwhile, Terence Winter, the showrunner who ran Tulsa King Season 1 and then stepped away, came back to take over from Dave Erickson. People in the industry see Winter’s return as a major shift. He might be about to put his own stamp on the show, with new storylines and, clearly, a new crew that fits his style.

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Was there a link between crew cuts, alleged set tensions, and broader industry upheaval?

Sudden crew changes hit the set of Tulsa King, and it all happened with some old drama still hanging in the air. Earlier in 2024, word got out that Sylvester Stallone, the lead actor, made some nasty comments about background actors. Some even said he helped create a “toxic environment” on set.

Things got messy enough that Rose Locke Casting, a major agency, actually quit the show. Locke was quoted as saying by The Hollywood Reporter:

“I have been informed of certain things that happened on Thursday … I came the 2nd day (Friday) to see what was happening. At the end of the day I resigned because it was a clear toxic environment that I was not comfortable putting myself or background artists in.”

The production company, 101 Studios, jumped in and launched an internal investigation. But a bunch of extras pushed back, saying the rumors of bad treatment were overblown, and director Craig Zisk flat-out denied the whole story.

Jump ahead to October 2025, and now there are crew cuts. They aren’t officially linked to any of those earlier problems. Still, with all the layoffs at Paramount and the chaos across the industry, people are starting to wonder if the network’s priorities are changing fast, both creatively and behind the scenes.

The studio insists that budget issues didn’t play a role in the latest layoffs, and there is nothing concrete tying the shakeup to the environmental complaints or Stallone’s supposed behavior. But industry observers are still connecting the dots.