Kevin Costner Finally Confirms His Exit from ‘Yellowstone’
Marcus Jones
When Paramount Network announced the long anticipated return of its hit series “Yellowstone” on Thursday, June 20, there was a major detail missing.
Sure, the back half of its fifth season would begin airing on Sunday, November 10, but would its lead Kevin Costner be back? Well, “Yellowstone” fans have finally got an answer directly from the source, and it looks like John Dutton is fully disappearing into the horizon.
In a video posting to X, Costner said, “I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue Season 5B or into the future. It was something that really changed me. I loved it, and I know you loved it. And I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning.” He added, “I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop, and I’ll see you at the movies.”
The last bit is in reference to his new Warner Bros. release “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1,” out on June 28, which the Oscar-winning filmmaker both directs and stars in. The period Western that cost Costner millions of his own money to make has actually been at the core of the conflict he’s had with “Yellowstone” mastermind Taylor Sheridan and the show’s production company 101 Studios.
As making “Horizon” became a priority for Costner, the production window he was willing to acquiesce to “Yellowstone” became smaller and smaller, leading to reports in early 2023 that cable’s biggest current hit was bound to end, and reboot with fellow Academy Award winner Matthew McCaughney as the lead.
“Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival led to a press run in which Costner had been hot and cold on the TV franchise that breathed new life into his career. One moment, he said that he would like to see his performance as the Dutton family patriarch through seven seasons. Then, shortly afterward, he said negotiations around his return to “Yellowstone” began to fail specifically because “Paramount and 101 Studios mismanaged this. They had me for 5, 6, and 7. I agreed to do it. And then they steadily began changing their format.”
For their part, Sheridan, 101 Studios, and the wider “Yellowstone” team have mostly been on the defense, but one could argue the point of no return has been Costner’s suggestion that he is ready to take legal action over the contract debacle, and that Sheridan cribbed some material from the “Horizon” script for the “Yellowstone” spinoff “1883.”
As Costner’s farewell message was posted after business hours, Sheridan, 101 Studios, and Paramount Network have yet to respond to the news. As the actor/director focuses on being able to make all four parts of “Horizon” he’s conceived, McCaughney is still unconfirmed as a replacement for Costner’s sizable role in the incredibly successful “Yellowstone” franchise.
