Yellowstone visionary Taylor Sheridan admits he’s not entirely pleased that star Kevin Costner is exiting the hit series, but he promises Costner’s character John Dutton won’t pay the price on screen for anything that’s gone down off camera.
“I’m disappointed,” Sheridan, 53, told The Hollywood Reporter Wednesday about Costner’s departure. “It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.”
That said, Sheridan already has another spinoff in the works led by Matthew McConaughey, and Sheridan sees plenty of potential for its place in the expansive Yellowstone universe.
“There are lots of places where a way of life that existed for 150 years is slamming against a new way of life, but the challenges are completely different,” Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter. “There are a lot of places you can tell this story.”
Costner, 68, sought to work fewer and fewer days on Yellowstone to focus on his own Western epic, the four-part movie series . In May, Paramount Network confirmed Yellowstone would end after the second half of season 5 (which was slated to debut in November, but is contingent upon the as-yet-unresolved Writers Guild strike). There are still talks to bring Costner back to film scenes to bring John’s storyline to an end, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Despite speculation about tension behind the scenes, Sheridan maintains his praise for Costner’s work on the series. “His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful … and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone,” the Oscar-nominated Hell or High Water writer explained.
He also noted to THR that Costner “took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it,” referencing the reported friction. “His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”
Looking ahead, Sheridan says he didn’t initially intend to keep the Dutton’s patriarch alive for Yellowstone’s seriesfinale — but now that the episode is growing ever nearer, he’s had to get down to brass tacks. He can make one promise: John will not go out in a fiery crash.
“I was killed in a f — — you car crash!” he joked, referring to the fate of his Sons of Anarchy character David Hale.
“I don’t do f — — 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.”
In February, Deadline reported that Paramount Network was in talks with McConaughey to lead a Yellowstone spinoff while Costner was looking to reduce his Yellowstone schedule to work on Horizon. Paramount Network later confirmed Yellowstone would end, and that it ordered a spinoff series for the Paramount+ streaming platform. (While Yellowstone is available to stream on Yellowstone, Paramount+ is home to its various prequel series, including, and , and will presumably stream the forthcoming spinoff that’s currently in development.)
The ending of Yellowstone was announced days after Costner’s estranged wife Christine Baumgartner filed for divorce after 18 years of marriage. In court documents filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara Friday, Christine, 49, claimed she “did not pressure” Costner to leave Yellowstone before the split.
“I have avoided being public about the reasons for our divorce. I have done this to protect our family’s privacy. I did not pressure Kevin to leave the Yellowstone show,” Christine wrote in the document.
A source similarly told outlet in May that the split “has nothing to do with Yellowstone. The two situations are unrelated.”
Yellowstone’s first four seasons and the first half of season 5 are streaming now on Peacock.
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