Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan breaks his silence on Kevin Costner leaving season 5 of the hit Paramount+ show to focus on directing his own Western epic. Costner experienced a career comeback when he took the lead role of John Dutton in Sheridan’s sprawling neo-Western series Yellowstone, which went on to be a massive hit on Paramount Network and Paramount+. But Costner now appears done with Yellowstone, as the actor has shifted his focus to directing his own epic Western project, the four-part movie Horizon.
The back half of Yellowstone season 5 meanwhile looks to be facing delays, as both Costner’s exit and the ongoing WGA strike have thrown a wrench in plans to wrap up the hit series in 2023. As viewers eagerly await news on when Yellowstone season 5 will finally wrap up, the show’s creator Sheridan has broken his silence on Costner’s decision to leave the series, telling THR that he hopes the John Dutton actor achieves what he’s setting out to do with his own movie Horizon. Check out what Sheridan had to say in the space below:
My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered. His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful … and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone. But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.
The Yellowstone Universe Has Already Moved Beyond Costner
Costner may have lent Yellowstone a certain credibility when he signed on to star as John Dutton ahead of season 1, but the show’s runaway success meant that Sheridan’s plans quickly became much bigger than just maintaining one hit show while servicing his star’s needs. Indeed, Yellowstone has already given the world multiple spinoffs, including the hit shows 1883 and 1923. Sheridan also has plans for a new Yellowstone spinoff sequel that will replace Costner with Matthew McConaughey, while potentially retaining other non-John Dutton Yellowstone characters.
While it’s unfortunate that Costner was not able to find time in his schedule to film Yellowstone season 5, part 2 alongside his work on Horizon, it can be argued that Yellowstone no longer really needed him anyway. It’s yet to be seen how Sheridan and company will wrap up what is now officially the final season of Yellowstone, but given Sheridan’s track-record as a creator of compelling dramatic television, it’s likely the show has plenty of explosive developments in store as the larger Yellowstone universe transitions into a post-Costner era.