Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan spoke in an interview about the series ending, rumors of Kevin Costner being the reason the series is ending and what to expect from his upcoming spinoff starring Matthew McConaughey.
It was revealed earlier this year that Costner wanted to end the series, followed by Paramount announcing that the series will end with the second half of the upcoming fifth season.
Sheridan said the actor began requesting to work “fewer and fewer days at Yellowstone over the last few seasons to focus on his films, which frustrated the producers.” Costner is said to want to focus on his own western epic, a four-film passion project franchise called skylinewhich would see him star, co-write and direct.
“My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t changed,” Sheridan said THR. “John Dutton’s work is symbolic and powerful…and I’ve never had a problem with Kevin that he and I couldn’t resolve over the phone. But once the lawyers get involved, then people stop talking to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and try to shift blame based on how the media or the public seem to react. He took a lot of that on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves that.”
According to the report, there are ongoing conversations to get Costner to shoot some scenes to wrap up his character as patriarch John Dutton. Sheridan also suggested that the character was never planned to make it to the end of the series, and that this new development does not change his plans from the series’ original script (while it was originally formatted as a film).
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“I’m disappointed,” Sheridan remarked. “It closes his character. It doesn’t change it, but it truncates it.”
There were also claims that Costner and Sheridan butted heads over the direction of Costner’s character, but Sheridan claims, “I never had that conversation with Kevin.” Instead, he says there was an instance during Season 2 where Costner got used to Dutton’s commitment to his family and lifestyle before he started killing people. “Kevin felt that season two was deviating from that, and I don’t know that he was wrong. In season three, we got back into it,” the creator said. “And I remember he won a Golden Globe last year for his performance, so I think it’s working,” he added.
Although Yellowstone returns in November, the ongoing writers’ strike (which Sheridan generally supports) will likely delay that. However, the creator said that the series may not end in the previously reported six episodes.
“If they think it takes ten episodes to wrap up, they’ll give me 10,” Sheridan says. “It will take as long as it takes.”
Finally, Sheridan addressed the upcoming spin-off starring McConaughey (which will have Yellowstone in the title), which may rely heavily on a new cast and setting. “My idea of a spin-off is the same as my idea of a prequel — read into that what you will,” Sheridan said before confirming the series as a standalone story. “There are lots of places where a way of life that has existed for 150 years is bumping into a new way of life, but the challenges are completely different. There are a lot of places you can tell this story.”
YellowstoneSeason 5 returns November 2023, Paramount Network