Kevin Costner’s participation in the final episodes of Yellowstone is still a big question mark, but fans are lucky they got him for as many seasons as they did.
Apparently, Costner, 69, originally had a very different plan for his time as patriarch John Dutton on the show. The actor revealed during the Monday, June 3, episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast that he initially planned to film only three seasons of Yellowstone, which premiered in 2018. As fans know, however, that’s not how it went.
“I ended up making five,” Costner said. “I just believed in the world. I knew it was a soap opera. I knew we should all be in jail. We’ve all killed people there. And so you throw logic out the window a little bit.”
Costner went on to praise cocreator and showrunner Taylor Sheridan’s scripts as the main reason he signed on to do the show in the first place.
“He has a great ear and he just wrote that stuff really authentically, and it was good fun, and he wrote my part especially well and Kelly [Reilly’s] part,” the Oscar winner said. “So, listen, I had a lot of fun with it. … It was really good, I recognized that, so I did it the best I could possibly do it.”
Costner’s comments come after more than a year of headlines about his alleged feud with Sheridan, 54. The drama began in early 2023 when rumors swirled that Costner was holding up production on the second half of Yellowstone season 5 because he was unhappy with the filming schedule. Costner later denied that he was the reason for the delay on the final batch of episodes, which are set to air later this year after originally being slated for summer 2023.
In May 2023, Paramount Network confirmed that Yellowstone would end with season 5, but the universe will continue with a sequel series currently titled 2024.
Last month, Costner slammed the speculation about his role in the filming delays, telling Deadline that his upcoming movie, Horizon: An American Saga, played no role in Yellowstone’s production problems. (The show’s return was further delayed by the dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes of last year.)
“That’s not true,” Costner declared when asked whether Horizon cut into his Yellowstone filming time. “That’s a lie. That’s not correct.”
According to the actor, there were “no scripts” for the second half of season 5, but if there had been, he’d have filmed them.
“I gave them 25 of my days for this B thing in November and December [2022]. What they called 5B. The whole month of March [2023],” he continued. “I didn’t shoot 5B. There was no script. And then things imploded.”
While he doesn’t seem to be involved in the show at the moment, Costner noted that he is “very open to coming back” to the series to wrap up his arc as John Dutton.
“If the writing’s there and I’m happy with it. I’m open to that. But I took a beating over these guys not speaking up for me and allowing crazy stories to come out,” he said. “I’m not happy about that. But if the writing is there, I will be there too. They had first position. I didn’t do Horizon because I was tired of doing Yellowstone. That’s a bulls–t story. I didn’t do Horizon to compete with Yellowstone. This [project] is something I’ve had a long time.”
Paramount Network announced on May 20 that Yellowstone has resumed production on its final episodes. “As previously announced, the series is slated to return in November,” the network added in a statement.
