With Yellowstone coming to an end after season 5, fans won’t have the opportunity to meet another member of the Dutton family.
Country singer Cory Asbury revealed he was slated to portray the “long-lost brother” of Luke Grimes’ Kayce Dutton in a potential sixth season of the hit Paramount series before news broke that season five would be the show’s last.
“I was fired up about it and so bummed when it was canceled, so bummed,” Asbury, 38, told Taste of Country during an Instagram Live Q&A with podcast host Adison Haager.
The musician shared that he and his family had plans to relocate to Montana in order for him to film for the show prior to the announcement.
“We were gonna move to Montana for a full year. We were ready, our family was ready” he said, adding that his wife, Anna, “gave me the OK and our kids were like, ‘OK, cool, we’ll go live in Montana.’”
He added: “Because they were like, ‘Yeah, it’ll take a full year of your life, you’ll have to cancel all your shows,’ and I was like, yeah, alright, cool. Sounds good.”
While he didn’t get a chance to meet Grimes or the show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, he recalled the casting director telling him that they both looked at his social media and thought he was “really cool” and a good fit for the role.
Asbury also revealed that he was asked not to share information about the would’ve-been character, “but then it canceled and I was like, ‘Screw this, I’m talking about it.’ ”
He added of the missed opportunity, “It’s just sad. It’s a sad reality.”
The news of a potentially expanded Dutton family storyline comes after months of speculation over what led to the decision to end the hit show after five seasons.
Paramount announced this month that the final installment of the series will air in November 2024, a full year after it was originally slated for release, as a result of the writers’ and actors’ strike earlier this year.
The first part of the final season began airing in November 2022, and the midseason finale aired on Jan. 1, 2023. Since then, the fate of the show’s lead, Kevin Costner, became increasingly unclear as much of the cast was a no-show at a panel about the series in April following reports that Matthew McConaughey was joining the show and Costner, 68, was departing.
In September, during a child support hearing as part of his divorce settlement with his wife of 18 years, Christine Baumgartner, Costner revealed that his decision to leave the show resulted from creative differences behind the scenes — and logistical challenges.
While on the stand in Santa Barbara, Calif., he shared that a “long, hard-fought negotiation” about splitting season 5 into two parts was behind his decision to leave the Paramount Network series.
Costner said he needed to focus on his own Western epic, the four-part movie series Horizon: An American Saga, which didn’t work with filming Yellowstone twice a year. Costner said he “changed” his schedule to shoot the first part of season 5, adding, “That’s a big deal in this world.”
At that point, the first part of the season wasn’t finished yet, and there were “no scripts written” for the second part of season 5, he said.
Costner testified that he wanted to return for the sixth season of the Western series but “I couldn’t help them any more. We tried to negotiate, they offered me less money than previous seasons, there were issues with the creative…”
Before ultimately walking away, the actor said he made one last effort to come back and told his representatives “have them pay me whatever number, we came up with a number, and they [Yellowstone] walked away.” He said on the stand he believed that number was $12 million.
He added, “I’ve been told it’s a little disappointing that [it’s] the #1 show on TV, I’m not participating.”
When asked if he will receive a payout from the second part of Yellowstone season 5, Costner responded, “I will probably go to court over it.”