Kevin Costner Leaves Yellowstone Final Season, Won’t Appear In Last Episodes?

The latest news about Kevin Costner’s reduced role in Yellowstone was shared by Belloni on a recent episode of the podcast The Town, in which she said his understanding is that Costner will not appear in the final episodes of Season 5. To this point, Costner’s character, John Dutton, has been the anchor of the series and, while there have been rumors that he may be killed, it seems bizarre that the series would end without his presence. It seems the reasons for the actor’s departure are based on scheduling differences and other problems between Costner and the producers.

Kevin Costner was expected to stay with Yellowstone not only through its fifth season, but on to a sixth and seventh seasons that have long since been canceled due to the friction between execs and the star. According to Costner, negotiations for Seasons  5, 6, and 7 included a $24 million payday for the actor, but there were creative differences between him and producers, including creator Taylor Sheridan. The talks regarding those differences ended, according to the actor, with the producers leaving the negotiating table.

Kevin Costner has also stated that he might take the production to court over his exit from Yellowstone, though it is presently unclear what the actor’s specific grievances are. As we have mentioned before, Costner had begun production on his Western film Horizon, a two-part epic feature whose production took him away from Yellowstone. Still, however, the actor was seemingly very interested to continue with the TV series, so long as his schedule could be accommodated to his satisfaction.

Kevin Costner’s differences with Yellowstone producers do seem to be rooted in these scheduling conflicts, with the actor saying that the choice to split Season 5 into two parts caused interference with the production of Horizon. According to Costner, instead of doing Yellowstone once per year, he would now be doing it twice in one year. Whether this is the only problem over which Costner apparently might seek damages is presently unclear, though it is not a stretch to say that no one is happy about the situation.

That includes fans of both Kevin Costner and Yellowstone, who had hoped to at least see John Dutton through the end of Season 5, if not the once-considered Seasons 6 and 7. For its part, Yellowstone has been very successful, spinning off two other series already with a third, starring Matthew McConaughey to follow. It seems that, with or without Costner and John Dutton, people remain eager to see more of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone saga.