Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone Has A Definite Ending, And Fans Won’t Be Happy
Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone has continued to gallop its way into the ranks of elite television dramas. We could watch indefinitely, it seems the show’s creator has other plans.
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Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone has continued to gallop, not trot, its way into the ranks of elite television dramas. Four seasons in, the Dutton family isn’t slowing down as more and more households continue to be drawn into the period drama. While we could watch life on the ranch indefinitely, it seems the show’s creator has other plans.
Speaking recently to the New York Times, the mastermind behind Kevin Costner’s John Dutton and Yellowstone revealed that he already has definitive ideas for how the show will end. “Well, I know how it ends. I’m writing to that ending. There’s only so much hovering one can do before the story starts to lose its locomotion; you can’t put it in neutral just because it’s successful. It will go as many years as it takes for me to tell the story, but you’re not going to see nine seasons of it. No way.” Given that the show is already in its fourth season, at most, fans can hope for four more seasons at most. However, the way the writer suggests that nine would be out of the question, it suggests far fewer are ahead for Kevin Costner. While continuing the largest show on TV right now may seem like an easy feat considering the tension that keeps building around John, Beth, and Jamie, it would be hard to imagine the series being able to hold that same momentum throughout another four seasons.
Not many television drama series make it to nine seasons. If they do, they often center around an easily re-writable topic, such as law or medicine. Shows like Grey’s Anatomy may be well past the nine-season mark, but viewerships and plenty of negative reviews have proven that the formula isn’t working anymore. While knowing a definitive ending is planned for Kevin Costner and the rest of the crew on Yellowstone may seem like a letdown, a planned and thought-out ending tends to make for the best series wrap-ups.
Many are comparing Yellowstone and Kevin Costner’s performance to that of the Emmy Award-winning series Breaking Bad with Bryan Cranston. The popular teacher turned to meth series remains to be one of the most critically acclaimed shows of all time. The story, written by the mastermind Vince Gilligan, produced five epic seasons. While many popular series have suffered ratings drop off’s on the last season, Gilligan was able to keep the momentum as high as ever, giving the series one of the best finales ever seen. The key to Gilligan’s success lies in the fact that he knew how and when he wanted the show to end, even before it premiered.
While the news of Yellowstone’s planned departure seems daunting, there is surely plenty more in store for Kevin Costner and the Dutton family. Likewise, the ratings the show has been pulling this year would surely call for at least one or two more seasons. And even if the show may be wrapping up the drama soon, the Yellowstone universe is expanding, opening the way for plenty of spin-offs.
Originally announced during this year’s Superbowl, the highly-anticipated Yellowstone:1883 premiered this past week. While the prequel series may not feature fan-favorite Kevin Costner, the first look at Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as the ancestors who founded the Yellowstone ranch pulled off a huge success for Paramount Network. And if one prequel simultaneously running with Yellowstone isn’t enough, the studio also has plans for another spinoff, Yellowstone: 6666. Much of the details on the newest series coming to the franchise are still under wraps, but it is rumored to surround the famous Four Sixes Ranch.
