Kevin Costner Is Leaving Yellowstone For Good
It is reported that Kevin Costner will exit Yellowstone at the end of season 5.
It seems as if the rumors about Kevin Costner’s exit from Yellowstone have finally been confirmed, according to Entertainment Tonight. But to many fans of the show, this has been a long time coming. By now, it’s no mystery that there have been issues regarding Costner’s availability to film the latter half of season 5, and now inside sources at Paramount have said that once production wraps, he will no longer be a part of the series.
In the meantime, we are still waiting on production updates for the latter half of season 5 of Yellowstone. And over the past few months, we’ve seen conflicting reports on whether the Dances With Wolves star would end his tenure on the series, or continue to portray John Dutton for more seasons to come. But with the most recent developments confirming Kevin Costner’s departure, we can reasonably assume that the delayed production will pick up sometime soon to finish out the season.
Originally slated to resume filming in March 2023, the production for Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone was delayed due to Kevin Costner potentially hanging up his spurs. In other words, with the uncertainty surrounding his exit, production was held in limbo because the show’s writers needed to know whether or not John Dutton’s presence in the series would come to an end, or continue. Now that we know for certain that Costner will not be returning, writing and shooting can resume now that an outcome to this drama has been made official.
The drama surrounding Yellowstone’s plagued production schedule originally surfaced back in February, when scheduling issues on Kevin Costner’s part came to light. It was originally speculated that Costner would limit himself to only 65 days of shooting for the entire fifth season, 50 of which were used for the first eight-episode run. Simple math dictates that Costner would only be available for the remaining 15 days to finish out the latter half of the season, which will be six episodes.
But since February, rumors have circulated that Kevin Costner would only make himself available for a week to shoot the rest of the Yellowstone season, which would prove to be an impossible feat. At this point in time, Costner’s lawyer, Marty Singer, has gone on record stating that this allegation was an outright lie and that nobody should believe such a ridiculous rumor. However, it’s worth noting that although we’re dealing with rumors and hearsay, Costner is in fact exiting the series.
Though we don’t know the exact inner workings of the Yellowstone set, or what kind of time commitment Kevin Costner made for the rest of the season, it’s evident that scheduling and availability on Costner’s part have been the primary source of contention all along. Whether he commits for one week, two weeks, or a month, is a moot point on this current timeline, however, as we now know that he will not be returning to the show after the season 5 finale.
Given the timeline that we currently know, it’s evident that the second installment of Yellowstone’s fifth season will not be slated for a summer release, but rather likely sometime in the fall. Now that we know where everybody stands, production can resume with the knowledge of Kevin Costner’s imminent departure from the series. And hopefully, we can see a satisfying resolution, both on-screen and off-screen.
