‘Yellowstone’ will have the ‘best series finale in history,’ according to one of its stars. Here’s what we know about season 5, and whether Kevin Costner is returning.

After months of speculation, it’s official: “Yellowstone” is expected to return to wrap up its fifth and final season later this year.

The series, co-created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson, centers on John Dutton (Kevin Costner), an aging rancher who spends his life maintaining and protecting his family’s land and legacy in the face of myriad threats.

The first eight episodes of season five began airing on the Paramount Network in late 2022 before the cliffhanger midseason finale dropped on January 1, 2023.

Since then, fans of the series have been desperately waiting to find out what happens next — but the show has faced setback after setback.

First, reports of a falling out between Costner and Sheridan suggested the show would be coming to a premature end with what has aired so far because the two couldn’t agree on the shooting schedule for new episodes.

Paramount then announced “Yellowstone” would officially conclude with the second half of the fifth season, which was scheduled to air in the fall of 2023. However, the Hollywood writers’ strike that began in May and the actors’ strike in July delayed production further.

Now, it’s been confirmed that the Dutton family saga will come to a close this year, with the final episodes scheduled to begin airing in November 2024.

Here’s everything we know about the episodes so far.

Whether or not Costner will return as John Dutton is still up in the air.

It seems inconceivable that the final episodes won’t feature Costner, given that he is the show’s protagonist, but it appears that could be the case if a new contract is not negotiated.

Last year, the 69-year-old actor revealed via court documents related to his recent divorce that he is “no longer under contract” for the drama and wasn’t expecting to receive any further monetary compensation from the series apart from “back-end contractual participation rights.”

When he later took the stand at a child support hearing, the Oscar winner said that a “long, hard-fought negotiation” about breaking season five into two parts was behind his exit, as it clashed with plans for his four-part Western saga, “Horizon.”

At the time, he stated his intentions to take the show’s producers to court over a pay dispute.

More recently, Costner has changed tack. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight in April 2024, he said he’d “love” to be able to return to the show to wrap things up for his character, but no decisions had yet been made.

The rest of the main cast are expected to return.

There may be a question mark hovering around Costner’s status on the show, but the rest of the cast will likely return.

That means audiences can expect to see John’s business-minded daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly), his adopted lawyer son Jamie (Wes Bentley), and the youngest and most wayward of the siblings, Kayce (Luke Grimes), all back at the ranch.

However, Reilly, Grimes, and Cole Hauser, who plays John’s right-hand man, have requested significant pay increases to return, per a report from Puck’s Matthew Belloni.

Paramount and 101 Studios are said to have pushed back on the proposed new salaries, which come close to the $1.3 million per episode Costner was paid during the first half of season five. No update has been given about their salary negotiations since February 2024.

Alongside them, there is also John’s new girlfriend, Summer (Piper Perabo), his daughter-in-law Monica (Kelsey Asbille), and his long-standing adversary, Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham).

Lastly, there’s the ragtag group of ranch hands who make the Dutton spread what it is: Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith), Ryan (Ian Bohen), Teeter (Jennifer Landon), and Walker (Ryan Bingham).