Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone Fate Revealed, Is He Leaving The Show Forever?
Paramount Network is "very confident" that Kevin Costner will remain on as the face of Yellowstone.
Kevin Costner and Yellowstone have become the biggest “will they or won’t they?” drama since Ross and Rachel on Friends. Will Kevin Costner be leaving Yellowstone to pursue his own new series? Or will he be asked to leave over scheduling conflicts? According to The Hollywood Reporter, we finally have an answer: Paramount Network’s president of development and production says that Costner is sticking with the show.
During a panel on Saturday night, Keith Cox confirmed that Kevin Costner isn’t going anywhere, in spite of the rumors and controversy that just won’t seem to quit. “What I can say is our star, the face of our show and the executive producer, are very confident he’s going to continue with our show,” he told the Dolby Theatre crowd. The show’s fans, of course, then went wild.
As recent as this February, rumor had it that the studio was heading toward an early ending for the popular series due to conflict with Kevin Costner. While his fellow actors and actresses maintain that he is a joy to work with, some of those in production cited “scheduling battles,” with Kevin Costner reportedly demanding to work only one week on the second part of Yellowstone’s fifth season.
Since the first part of the fifth season was leading up to a battle that could very possibly turn lethal for either Kevin Costner’s character or his son, fans and gossip rags were speculating that it was curtains for Kevin Costner and his character. That would, after all, be a good way to write the character off the show, and pretty good timing, since Kevin Costner seems to want to devote more time to the filming of a Western series he has been trying to get off the ground for years.
At that point, it seemed like even the Paramount Network didn’t know how things were going to go. They released a statement saying that they had “no news to report” and that they hoped that Kevin Costner would continue to be a part of Yellowstone for the foreseeable future.
In addition to this news, it has also been divulged that Matthew McConaughey has been eyed for a role in the Yellowstone franchise by Taylor Sheridan. His involvement isn’t necessarily dependent on whether or not Kevin Costner remains on as the lead character in the original series, but fans are pretty excited about this news as well.
Some of the actors on the original Yellowstone, however, have spoken out about how “interesting” it is to work on a show where apparently the fans’ uncertainty about the future of the characters is shared by Kevin Costner’s co-stars and crew. There have been some delays thanks to Kevin Costner’s busy schedule, but Wendy Moniz says that “We’ve just been waiting and listening and wanting to get back to work, basically.”
Other members of the show also said they hope that Kevin Costner will remain a big part of the show for “a very long time,” although it would be understandable if they were frustrated. It can’t be easy being a part of a show for which the next season (or even the second half of the season you just filmed) doesn’t seem to be guaranteed. So, this assertion that Kevin Costner will remain part of the project is welcome news for fans and his co-stars alike.
