Finally, We Know When Yellowstone Will Return With Its Last-Ever Episodes
With two Hollywood strikes and intense drama between the series’ lead and creator, Yellowstone‘s Season 5, Part 2 release date has finally been announced — and it’s not when viewers expected. Yellowstone is Paramount Network’s drama series following the Dutton family, the owners of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, also known as The Yellowstone,” the largest ranch in Montana.
The series was led by Kevin Costner, who plays patriarch John Dutton III, and revolves around the family’s drama at the ranch and the nearby Broken Rock Indian Reservation, Yellowstone National Park and developers. Yellowstone Season 5, Part 1 aired its finale on January 1, 2023. The series was set to return later that year. But due to a series of events — including Costner’s drama with creator Taylor Sheridan, as well the Writer’s Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA Strikes — Yellowstone‘s Season 5, Part 2 release date had been delayed indefinitely.
After months of silence as to when viewers would see the Duttons again, Yellowstone‘s Season 5, Part 2 release date was finally confirmed. Read on for when Yellowstone will return for Season 5, Part 2.
When is Yellowstone‘s Season 5, Part 2 release date?
Yellowstone’s Season 5, Part 2 release date is November 2024. Season 5, Part 2 — which is the final season of Yellowstone — was originally set to premiere in late 2023, however, the Writer’s Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes delayed production.
Along with Yellowstone‘s Season 5, Part 2 release date, Paramount Network also announced two more Yellowstone spin-offs, 2024, a modern Yellowstone series, and 1944, a Yellowstone prequel. The spin-offs are produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios. The series join the Yellowstone franchise’s four other spin-offs: 1883, which aired on Paramount Plus from 2021 to 2022; 1923, which premiered on Paramount Plus in 2022; Lawmen: Bass Reeves, which premiered on Paramount Plus in 2023; and 6666, which is set to premiere on Paramount Network in 2023.
Chris McCarthy, president & CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, confirmed Yellowstone was ending after Season 5, Part 2 in a statement to Variety in May 2023. “Yellowstone has been the cornerstone on which we have launched an entire universe of global hits – from 1883 to Tulsa King, and I am confident our Yellowstone sequel will be another big hit, thanks to the brilliant creative mind of Taylor Sheridan and our incredible casts who bring these shows to life,” he said, referring to Sheridan’s other series for Paramount Plus.
News of Yellowstone‘s final season also came after reports that Kevin Costner, who played John Dutton, was leaving the series due to his drama with creator Taylor Sheridan. Paramount Network is set to replace Yellowstone with a new spin-off led by Matthew McConaughey.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023, Sheridan hinted that Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2 may be expanded from 6 episodes to 10 episodes. “If I think it takes 10 episodes to wrap it up, they’ll give me 10,” Sheridan said. “It’ll be as long as it needs to be.”
He also teased how Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2 will wrap John Dutton III’s story witout Costner, admitting that he was “disappointed” that Costner wouldn’t be in the series. “It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it,” he said. “I don’t do [beep]-you car crashes,” Sheridan said. “Whether [Dutton’s fate] inflates [Costner’s] ego or insults is collateral damage that I don’t factor in with regard to storytelling.”
Sheridan also told The Hollywood Reporter about how the idea for McConaughey to replace Costner came about. “[McConaughey] seems like a natural fit,” Sheridan said. “We had a few conversations over the years, and spitballed a few ideas. Then he started watching Yellowstone and responded to it. He was like, ‘I want to do that.’ And by ‘that’ he meant diving into a raw world clashing up against the modern world. And then I said, ‘Buddy, that we can do.’”
He also couldn’t confirm if the Yellowstone spin-off starring McConaughey will include characters and cast members from the original Yellowstone. “My idea of a spinoff is the same as my idea of a prequel — read into that what you will,” Sheridan said of the matter.
Costner and Sheridan’s drama stared in February 2023 when Deadline reported that “Costner, who had originally limited himself to 65 days of shooting on Yellowstone, only wanted to shoot for 50 days for the first part of the current season,” which allegedly resulted in Costner only wanting to “spend a week shooting” Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2.
Costner’s lawyer, Marty Singer, told Puck.News in February 2023 that reports that “Kevin was only willing to work one week on the second half of Season 5 of Yellowstone is an absolute lie.” Singer also called the allegations “ridiculous — and anyone suggesting it shouldn’t be believed for one second.”
