This is the final word.
After months of confusion, rumored behind-the-scenes feuds, and production setbacks, the popular neo-Western drama Yellowstone is finally coming to a close. The main source of strife on-set seemed to be between the show’s star, Kevin Costner (who won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama in 2023 for his role as patriarch John Dutton) and showrunner Taylor Sheridan. The prevailing rumors were that Costner was too busy focusing on other projects to fit in Yellowstone filming — a claim the actor vehemently denies. There are still six more episodes of the neo-Western drama to go before it wraps completely, and fans are hoping that Costner will return to give his character a send-off. So is there a chance John Dutton will reappear for one final ride? Costner recently spoke out about whether he’d come back to Yellowstone. Here’s what he had to say.
Is Kevin Costner coming back to Yellowstone?
Talk about whiplash! Just a few days after he seemed to offer fans some hope, Kevin Costner took to Instagram to set the record straight once and for all — and John Dutton fans probably aren’t going to be happy.
After a brief hello to the fans, Costner cuts right to the chase in the video to let fans know, “After this long year and a half of working on Horizon, doing everything that’s required, and thinking of Yellowstone — the beloved series that I love and I know you love — I realized I’m not going to be able to continue season 5b or into the future,” effectively quashing any hope not just for the Yellowstone finale, but for any current or future spin-offs.
Speaking of Yellowstone, he says, “It was something that really changed me. I loved it, and I know you loved it. And I just wanted to let you know I won’t be returning.”
Costner ended his message with some kind words (and a not-so-thinly-veiled plug for his movie), saying, “I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop and I’ll see you at the movies.”
This definitive answer comes just days after Costner appeared on The TODAY Show on June 17, where he appeared to give fans some hope for his return, telling Savannah Guthrie, “I would love to go back under the right circumstances I think that all of us want.” He also said he’s supported and loved the show, and said, “There’s a chance, there’s always a chance,” that he could return. “I love the thing.”
Those remarks squared with what he told Entertainment Tonight in April: “I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to,” he said, adding that he initially thought the show would have seven seasons, but it ended up just being five. He also explained, “They’ve got a lot of different shows going on” — there are five Yellowstone spin-offs in the works so far — but said, “I hope it does [work out].”
Unfortunately, it looks like it just wasn’t meant to be. But there is some good news: After months of delays due in part to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes last summer, filming finally began in Montana in May 2024, and the six episodes are set to air in November.
When is Yellowstone season 5, part 2 airing?
Like Netflix’s Ozark, the fifth and final season of Yellowstone was set to air in two parts. The first batch of season 5 aired between late 2022 and early 2023 and consisted of eight episodes. But when it came time to film the second half of season 5, that’s where the drama started. It was slated to come out in summer 2023, but by February 2023, it was revealed that disputes involving Costner — purportedly having to do with everything from scheduling to pay and personality differences — had delayed filming. Then, of course, the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes in the summer of 2023 delayed production quite a bit. Now, Yellowstone season 5 part 2 is set for a November 2024 air date, with filming underway as of May 2024.
There is some good news while we wait. In a June 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Sheridan gave fans some hope regarding the finale: There might be even more episodes than expected. “If I think it takes 10 episodes to wrap it up, they’ll give me 10. It’ll be as long as it needs to be,” he told the outlet.
Why did Kevin Costner leave Yellowstone?
The official party line was that Costner was leaving Yellowstone to focus on Horizon, a four-movie Western that he’s directing, co-writing, and starring in — but according to rumors, the problems were actually due to disagreements between Costner and Sheridan.
Some of the supposed disagreements had to do with scheduling, with some reports stating that Costner’s focus on Horizon made him unavailable for shooting. In February 2023, for instance, Deadline reported that Costner wanted to shoot the remaining six episodes in just a week. Costner’s attorney denied that claim, for what it’s worth, saying, “The idea that Kevin was only willing to work one week on the second half of season five of Yellowstone is an absolute lie.”
In June of the same year, a source pushed back on this narrative to The Hollywood Reporter, saying that Costner was “waiting on scripts” and would repeatedly have his dates pushed after blocking out time for Yellowstone. “Kevin’s been unfairly portrayed in this thing,” the source said. “How can you schedule something when there are no scripts? [Sheridan’s] doing eight other shows.”
Costner himself told TODAY in June 2024 that the lack of scripts prevented him from shooting the back half of season 5: “Material has to be ready at certain times, and we weren’t able to do that.”
At the same time, Sheridan resisted claims that he personally had anything to do with these scheduling conflicts. “I don’t dictate the schedule. I don’t determine when things start filming. I don’t determine when things air. Those decisions are made by people way above me. My sphere of control is the content — that’s it,” he said. He also gave props to Costner for his handling of the media frenzy. “He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it,” he said.
Costner addressed why he left Yellowstone for the first time back in September 2023, and his comments came in an unlikely venue: his divorce trial. On September 1, Costner gave testimony in which he explained his reasons for exiting the show, calling the situation “complicated” and saying he “did negotiate” to return for three more seasons, but apparently that didn’t pan out. And while the bulk of the rumors so far have focused on Costner’s so-called scheduling issues, according to reporters at Costner’s divorce trial, there was another concern. “There were issues about creative. I tried to break the logjam. They walked away,” Costner said.
Costner did mention the scheduling issues, though. “Somewhere along the line, they wanted to change things,” Costner said. “They wanted to do 5A and 5B; [it] affected Horizon. I was going to do my movie Horizon and leave that show, do my movie, then do B. A show I was only doing once a year I was now doing twice.”
But there could be even more drama on the horizon: Costner said in his testimony that he would “probably go to court” over his exit. Deadline implied Costner could bring a wrongful termination suit against 101 Studios and Paramount Global, but we don’t yet have any details (or know if he will even go through with filing a lawsuit).
