In the Taylor Sheridan co-created series, Grimes plays Kayce Dutton, the son of Costner’s John Dutton III.
Luke Grimes is sharing his thoughts on his on-screen dad Kevin Costner’s exit from Yellowstone.
During a recent interview with The Independent, Grimes addressed Costner’s seemingly controversial departure from the hit Western series, saying while it was “unfortunate,” he understood the actor’s decision.
“Whatever happened there is unfortunate if it’s changed anything about how the show was going to unfold,” the Fifty Shades of Gray actor said. “I know, [Costner] got busy with his movies that were like passion projects [including the recently announced Horizon: An American Saga]. At a certain point, you gotta do what you gotta do, man; you gotta do what you love.”
In the Taylor Sheridan co-created series, Grimes plays Kayce Dutton, the son of Costner’s John Dutton III.
Although Costner’s Yellowstone exit was rocky, especially after he threatened to file a lawsuit last year, he told Entertainment Tonight earlier this month that he would “love” to return for the final episodes to see his character’s story come to an end.
“I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to … I thought I was going to make seven [seasons] but right now we’re at five. So how it works out — I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe it will. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it,” the Oscar-winning actor said at the time.
He added, “[Dutton] needs to be proactive in what happens and I’ve kind of had my own imagine how [the character’s final arc] might be. But that’s Taylor’s thing. I said as much to him a while back. I had thoughts how it could happen, but we just have to see.”
It has previously been reported that Costner wanted to approve his character’s fate in the series, but Sheridan — like most showrunners — doesn’t typically let actors determine how their character’s storylines end.
While the show hasn’t officially announced a start date for production on part two of the fifth season, The Independent reported that filming for the rest of the season is set to begin in May as the scripts are already written.
Elsewhere in his interview, Grimes also shared his frustrations with the politicization of the series and it being labeled as a “conservative fantasy” by liberal audiences.
“I think a lot of people see a cowboy hat and a horse and they think, ‘Oh, that’s not for me, those people believe differently.’ And it’s almost like they take these flawed characters in the show and chalk it up to some sort of weird beliefs that they’ve put on them,” the American Sniper actor explained. “Meanwhile, you can have a terrible person like [Succession’s] Logan Roy, who lives in an apartment in Manhattan, and that’s fine. That guy’s a total piece of shit! But that’s OK. It’s so funny to me because … I just don’t understand why that has to immediately equal some political belief. And I don’t think it does.”
Paramount Network previously announced that the second half of Yellowstone’s fifth and final season is set to premiere in November, however, it’s not currently clear if that date may change due to production timing.
