Bentley Continental GT Breaks Out in Starring Roles

A divorce dilemma: Fight for the four homes and liquid assets or walk away with the Bentley Continental GTC Speed convertible.

“I ain’t leaving without my (expletive) Bentley,” Angela Norris (played by Ali Larter) snarls in the first season of “Landman,” a drama set in West Texas oil boomtowns.  

That mix of the colloquial and the luxurious, the spitfire and the spoiled, is more than just a brilliant bit of product placement. At that moment, the Bentley is not a prop, but leverage. It casts the car as character and thrusts the heartthrob known as the Continental GT Speed into a starring role. 

This signature Bentley product is popping up with cameos in recent films, ranging from the DC Universe superhero vehicle “Blue Beetle” to “Fast and Furious 9” and “This Time Next Year.” 

“Bentley models have a classy and impressive presence that is less about ultra-sleek hypercar performance and more about sheer luxury statements,” said Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at AutoPacific, a research and product-consulting firm. 

That presence took centerstage in the final season of “Yellowstone,” another action drama created, written and produced by Taylor Sheridan, the same force behind “Landman.” 

A 2022 Continental GT Speed coupe was the steed of choice for Beth Dutton (Kelly Reily), the fiercely protective daughter of Montana rancher John (Kevin Costner). Surrounded by horses, cowboys, and heavy duty trucks, Beth’s Continental shows her evolution from the old ways toward a new kind of style and power.

“There is no stereotypical Bentley driver,” Sam Morris, Bentley partnership and product placement manager explained to Crown & Caliber. “In the real world, our customers are a broad spectrum of extraordinary people, and these are the characters we want to place our cars with.”

It seems Bentley, or at least the venerable Continental, has a type. Both female leads in both shows are strong, independent, drawn to power, and lethally protective of their loves. That love includes a 650-horsepower V8 GT Speed retailing for over $300,000.  

According to Bentley, the Continental three model lineup accounted for roughly 40% of global sales in 2025. A cornerstone of the brand, that momentum was already evident in 2022, when the Continental GT and GT Convertible together represented nearly a third of total sales (30%). Within that mix, the performance-focused GT Speed, described by Bentley as the most dynamic road car it has ever built, reached a 31% share of the Continental model offerings.

Morris insists the overlap between Landman and Yellowstone was “an authentic coincidence,” but the symmetry is hard to ignore. “In the case of Landman, it can represent luxury and affluence but also the power and certainty that Angela seeks to retain and reestablish in her life,” he said. “For Yellowstone, it represents the elevation of Beth’s status and the life she has built away from the ranch.”

But how does the powerful coupe and its convertible twin, with outsized proportions and a British pedigree for ultraluxury that dates back more than a century, project that star power? “The Continental GT, as Bentley’s coupe, is more upright than a McLaren GTS or Maserati GranTurismo, so it has a much more commanding presence,” Kim said. 

That presence just got more commanding. Bentley launched the fourth-generation Continental GT Speed and GTC Speed for the 2025 model year. 

Sheridan seemingly got the memo. In the premiere episode of “Landman” season two, which first aired in November of last year, an opportunistic character named Stormy (Jordyn Denning), boasts to her friend Lexi (Lindsey LeDoux) that she is “coming home with a condo in Dallas and a Bentley Continental” after a brief fling with an oil executive. Although the line is casually flung into a minor  bathroom scene, it reinforces the Continental’s position not just as an object of desire, but as cultural currency. Even aspirational characters understand what the Bentley signals. 

The Continental has played this role before. Introduced in 2003, it was Bentley’s first model under Volkswagen ownership after separating from Rolls-Royce, and it redefined the brand for a modern audience. 

Much like the female leads in “Landman” and “Yellowstone,” the new model sets its family on a new course. The new Continental GT Speed ditched the iconic W-12 engine once and for all in exchange for a plug-in hybrid powertrain. Don’t lament. The twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 pairs with a 140-kw motor sandwiched in the 8-speed automatic transmission to generate 760 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque, making it the most powerful Bentley ever. It slays the last W-12 iteration, cutting the 0-60-mph time down from 3.5 to 3.1 seconds. It tops out at 208 mph.

Like the characters who favor it, the Continental thrives on duality. A dual-chamber air suspension, handcrafted wood trim, and heated armrests deliver serenity, while the performance numbers place it firmly in modern super-GT territory. Even though its predecessor seemed perfectly cast in its roles in “Landman” and “Yellowstone,” there might be equally practical reasons why it’s a casting darling compared to rivals from Aston Martin, McLaren, and other boutique makes.

“For style leaders wearing the utmost in fashion, the Bentley’s proportions and height really help,” Kim explained. “No crouching down or spread-eagle ingress and egress out of a Continental GT!”