After beginning production in Montana on May 20, Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 officially has a release date. MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios announced the impending release on Thursday, June 20, the sixth anniversary of the Yellowstone series premiere on Paramount Network.
When Yellowstone returns, it will purportedly be for the series’ final episodes (at least for the main show, with several spinoffs still going or planned). And as of June 21, we know for sure that Kevin Costner‘s John Dutton will not be part of them. The Oscar winner confirmed in a message to fans on Instagram that “won’t be returning” for Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2.
The battle for the future of the ranch will be a civil war when the show returns, as the Season 5 Part 1 finale pitted John and Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) against Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley). It’s hard to imagine reconciliation between TV’s most toxic sibling rivalry; bloodshed is far more likely for this Taylor Sheridan series. If the family patriarch is killed off, and if any of his enemies played any part in his death, they’ll have hell to pay from Beth and Rip (Cole Hauser).
With Costner’s exit from Yellowstone confirmed, here’s everything we know so far about what could be the original series’ final episodes.
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 Premiere Date
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 is set to premiere on Sunday, November 10, 2024 at 9/8c on Paramount. It will premiere on Paramount+ in Canada on November 10, the U.K. on November 11, and in Latin America, Brazil, and France later in November.
Season 5 Part 2 could reportedly be the series’ final season, with a potential revamp with a new series lead to replace it. More on that possibility below.
Will Kevin Costner be in Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2?
After a year of rumors, Costner confirmed he won’t be in Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 on Friday, June 21, in a video message on Instagram.
“Hi everyone. I just want to reach out and let you know that after this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all the things that’s required, and thinking about Yellowstone — that beloved series that I love — that I know you love. I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue Season 5b or into the future,” he said. “It was something that really changed me. I loved it, and I know you loved it. I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning. I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop, and I’ll see you at the movies.”
For a while, rumors said Costner was done with Yellowstone. His commitment to his four-film Western saga, Horizon, which he directs, co-writes, and stars in, trumped his commitment to finishing Yellowstone. The actor didn’t just want to ghost the Paramount Network series that won him a Golden Globe, but he reportedly requested a shortened filming schedule for Season 5 Part 2.
This scheduling issue is said to have caused a dispute with Sheridan, who reportedly preferred not having Costner involved in the final episodes over having him on set for less time than the series needs. In Costner’s divorce hearing in September 2023, the actor said Season 5 was not meant to be filmed and released in two parts at first. When that change was made, it conflicted with Costner’s previously set schedule for Horizon.
“They wanted to do 5A and 5B; [it] affected Horizon,” Costner said, per Deadline. “I was going to do my movie Horizon and leave that show, do my movie, then do B. [But] a show I was only doing once a year, I was now doing twice.”
According to industry newsletter Puck, Costner wants to at least make a cameo in the final episodes, if not more, now that Sheridan’s scripts for Season 5 Part 2 are complete.
Earlier in May, Costner told Entertainment Weekly that he and Sheridan “haven’t talked” about his involvement in the upcoming episodes but that he’s open to working with him in the future.
“He’s doing special work in a lot of different ways. He’s very prolific about the things he does, and if he sees me in something that he wants to do, I’ll look at it just the way I did Yellowstone, and maybe we will end up doing something together,” Costner said.
The actor continued, “He likes a lot of the things that I like, and the idea of us working together is not out of the question for me. The subjects he chooses are very interesting to me. I like a lot of that stuff. Yellowstone stands as something that could continue. But that is a Taylor question. But other things that he’s doing I think are really, really good. He likes the same subjects that I do.”
Costner again discussed scheduling issues in interviews on Today and The View promoting Horizon.
“Number one, I did it for five years. And I want to work more than once a year. And we lost an entire year at one point, and I thought, ‘Well, that can’t ever happen again,’” he told Savannah Guthrie. “It was well over a year. And I said, ‘I just have to be in the position to make the things.’ And really, it’s just … there’s a chance to do both of them, but material has to be ready at certain times, and we weren’t able to do that. And I thought, well, after five years, I’m just going to do this. And if we can get that, and I can do that, then I will do it.”
He added on The View: “Yeah, I think there’s a way to work twice a year… I’d like to more than once a year. So yeah… but everything has to come to a point where it makes sense in your life, and when it does, you seize it. That’s the way I have been. I mean, you know, Horizon I started in 1998, and no one wanted to make it, and in 2003, no one wanted to make it. So I decided I would make four. And that means immediately put me on the bench … But I don’t fall out of love with things. And so that’s why I stuck with Horizon. And so my hope is at Yellowstone, there is a way to circle back to it. But I’ll know that the moment it’s right.”
Will Yellowstone kill off John Dutton? And how?
Costner is said to have a clause in his contract that requires a meaningful death for John, should the character be killed off. Given how deadly this show is (the eldest Dutton child, Lee Dutton, died in Season 1, and there have been explosive attempts to kill the remaining family members throughout the series), fans have long believed it possible that a major death in the family could occur. Fan theories about how John could die in the series have been floating around for years as a result.
One theory in particular seems incredibly likely: John was diagnosed with colon cancer in Season 1, which ramped up the pressure for him to decide who of his children would run the ranch after he was gone. Surgery helped treat the cancer, but fears that it came back emerged in Season 2 when John started coughing up blood. It turned out to be a burst ulcer that was treated on the ranch by the veterinarian in a rather gruesome scene. If John is to be killed off off-camera, his cancer returning is an easily explained death that satisfyingly ties back to the very first season.
Has Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 started filming?
Production on Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 has begun as of May 20. Back in March, Reilly implied that she hasn’t returned to set just yet and warned to take all the rumors surrounding the show with a grain of salt.
“I just care about finishing [Yellowstone] with as much care and as much passion and as much love as I can muster to put into it,” she told Radio Times. “That’s what I care about. I’m sort of prepping for that now [and] that’s my tunnel vision thing that I care about most.”
Reilly confirmed that “there are discussions” about the show’s future following Season 5 Part 2 but didn’t comment on the report that the series will be revamped with Matthew McConaughey as the star. The supposed feud between Costner and Sheridan may be overblown as well.
“Don’t believe everything you read. It’s just nonsense,” Reilly said, not specifying what rumors she was referencing. “I don’t have an answer right now,” she added. “But we’ll see.”
Luke Grimes, who plays Kayce Dutton, said he’s ready to see how the story ends.
“Nothing will ever be the same because of this show in all sorts of ways, good and bad,” he told People. “I will miss it terribly. I know that. I mean, I think I’m ready to know how it ends. I’m ready to tell the end of the story.”
Is There a Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 Trailer?
A trailer for the new episodes has not yet been released, but the series dropped a short teaser promoting the November release date on June 20 that features the ranch’s branding iron engulfed in flames. See below.
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 Cast
Reilly, Bentley, Grimes, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, and Gil Birmingham are all presumably returning for the final installment. And it’s safe to assume the ranch’s employees who live in the bunkhouse will also be back for one last ride. That cast includes Ian Bohen, Forrie J. Smith, Denim Richards, Ryan Bingham, and Jen Landon. Piper Perabo, who guest starred in Season 4 and Season 5 Part 1, could also return. We’ll also likely see Kayce and Monica’s son, Tate (Brecken Merrill), come back, along with Beth and Rip’s adopted son, Carter (Finn Little).
Josh Lucas, who plays the younger John Dutton in Yellowstone flashbacks, told SiriusXM’s Jessica Shaw that he believes he’ll be back for more episodes. He also told ET that Sheridan said the final season would be 10 episodes long. Season 5 Part 1 had eight total episodes.
“I texted [creator] Taylor Sheridan a couple months ago, and his response was, ‘Absolutely, we’re going to finish this with 10 episodes or so,’” Lucas said. “I know as much as you do, but I think we got 10 episodes to kind of wrap it up and I can’t wait to go do it.”
There’s also a third Yellowstone spinoff about the Texan Four Sixes ranch in the works, titled 6666. It’s the ranch where Jimmy (Jefferson White) was sent to become a better cowboy. It’s not clear if Jimmy will be the central character of the spinoff, but if it’s set in the present day, he very well could.
It’s also unknown whether upcoming Yellowstone: 2024 star Matthew McConaughey will make an appearance in the tentpole series; it was originally expected to premiere after the final stretch of Yellowstone episodes before both were delayed by the dual Hollywood strikes.
Yellowstone, Season 5 Part 2 Premiere, Sunday, November 10, 9/8c, Paramount Network