‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Cast & Creators on the Inspiration Behind the Gritty Drama (VIDEO)

Meet the McLusky brothers of Mayor of Kingstown, “fixers” in fictional Kingstown, Michigan, where seven prisons are the berg’s main business. The trio keeps the peace between cops, criminals, and everyone in between by making off-the-books deals. A natural in the business is the oldest, charming, gregarious Mitch (Kyle Chandler). More reluctant is the middle child — the “mayor” of the title — Mike (Jeremy Renner) who always wanted to get out of town and do something else with his life but kept getting pulled back. (“It’s a selfless job,” Renner told us.) The youngest is Kyle (Taylor Handley), a cop, who has ambitions that lie somewhere in between.

The gritty drama is the latest from Taylor Sheridan, the mind behind another sibling-centered saga, Yellowstone. It was inspired by the hometown of his co-creator, Hugh Dillon, who says, “As a child, I’d see the guard tower and think ‘it’s Disneyland.’ It’s the polar opposite. It’s brutal and ruthless.”

McLusky matriarch Mariam (Dianne Wiest) wants all of her sons to get into a new line of work. Their dad created the family business and was killed on the job. “She wakes up every day waiting for the knock on the door telling her that one of her children has been killed,” Wiest shares.

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She has every reason to fear when the brothers get into a mix-up with incarcerated Russian mobster Milo Sunter (Aiden Gillen). (Think money, women, and murder.) Luckily the McLusky family has powerful allies; Mike is especially tight with Crips boss Bunny (Tobi Bamtefa). And even Milo’s secret weapon, beautiful escort Iris (Emma Laird) who is sent to mess with Mike’s plans, is intimidated by the prison town. Laird hints, “When she’s in Kingstown she’s faced with dangers she’s never been exposed to, and that’s really scary.”

Mayor of Kingstown, Series Premiere, Sunday, November 14 on Paramount+