Kevin Costner has said he is open to returning to “Yellowstone” to wrap things up despite previously stating his intentions to take the show’s producers to court over a pay dispute.
Just over a year ago, it was confirmed that the hugely popular Paramount Network drama, which follows the lives of the Duttons, a wealthy and powerful Montana ranching family, would officially end with its current fifth season.
The announcement followed months of speculation about the show’s future after it was reported that Costner had reached an impasse with the show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, over shooting schedules.
The actor, who has been portraying protagonist John Dutton in the ratings juggernaut since 2018, is said to have requested that the number of days he spent filming on location in Montana be reduced so that he could focus on shooting and editing his four-film Western franchise, “Horizon: An American Saga.”
And with the film saga now poised for release — the first two installments land in theaters this summer — Costner now has taken a different tack on “Yellowstone.”
“I’d like to be able to do it, but we haven’t been able to,” Costner said about finishing the series while speaking to Entertainment Tonight at CinemaCon this week.
“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,” he continued, adding: “Maybe this will circle back to me.”
“I’d love to do it,” Costner said.
The 69-year-old actor earned a reported $1.3 million for each episode of the show in 2022. He previously suggested that he was looking to mount a lawsuit against “Yellowstone” producers because “they walked away” during salary negotiations over his season five return.
During a child support hearing as part of his high-profile divorce from his second wife Christine Baumgartner in September, Costner spoke of the “long, hard-fought negotiation” he had over his future on the show.
According to People, Costner said he made one final effort to return to the show, telling his representatives: “Have them pay me whatever number, we came up with a number.”
Costner said he believed that number was $12 million, and since he has not received the payout, he explained: “I will probably go to court over it.”
Representatives for Costner, Sheridan, and Paramount Network did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside regular working hours.
While speaking to ET, Costner also said he has some “thoughts” on what could happen in the final episodes for his character, whom audiences last saw facing impeachment from his role as Montana governor in the season five midseason finale.
He said that his character “needs to be proactive” about things, adding: “I’ve kind of had my own fantasy how it 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.”
Previously, Sheridan has hinted that the ending of “Yellowstone” could see Costner’s character killed off. He told The Hollywood Reporter last year that the character’s fate and the show’s ending had been planned out since the early days of “Yellowstone.”
As well as the final episodes of “Yellowstone,” Sheridan is also writing and producing the second season of the prequel series “1923,” an untitled contemporary spinoff Matthew McConaughy and Michelle Pfieffer are in negotiations to lead.
He is also involved in some capacity with eight other projects at Paramount, including “Mayor of Kingstown” and the upcoming series “Landman.”
