Kevin Costner is ready to set the record straight on the behind-the-scenes drama of Yellowstone.
The 69-year-old actor, who plays John Dutton III in the Taylor Sheridan series, claims he honored his contract despite ongoing rumors and discusses the delay of the show’s finale, as Season 5 ended prematurely.
Allegedly, a feud between Costner and Sheridan caused the hold up. Paramount claimed Costner refused to shoot more episodes, instead promoting his new film franchise, Horizon, while Costner asserts Paramount sought contract amendments due to Sheridan’s delayed scriptwriting.
‘There was no script,’ Costner told Deadline on Tuesday. ‘And then things imploded. You’ve been reading one version [of the show’s drama] for a year and a half.’
He added: ‘I have taken a beating from those f****** guys and I know a lot of times where it’s coming from. I just elected not to get into that. But if you know me well enough, I made Yellowstone the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong.’
Costner, who revealed he has not filmed the remaining episodes of Season 5, also defended Sheridan, claiming, ‘I did not initiate any of those things. They did. They were doing a tap dance and this poor guy was also having to write so much. And I don’t know why they didn’t stick up for me.’
After the first half of the fifth season of Yellowstone aired late last year, the show went on hiatus for the holidays. Their return to filming, originally slated for the beginning of the year, was postponed to sometime this summer, with no announced premiere date.
Since Yellowstone went on hiatus, Costner has borne the brunt of the blame.
‘I didn’t have to answer the slings and arrows over the last year and a half, because I’ve just been busy working. They’ve been pretty slick about keeping their hands off; nobody was ever on the record.’
However, rumors claimed he only wanted to work for one week to film the rest of the episodes. Costner contends that Paramount deceived him.
‘I haven’t felt good about it the last year, what with the way they’ve talked about it,’ he told Deadline. ‘It wasn’t truthful.’
‘So now I’m talking a little bit about what the real truth of it was. I made a contract for seasons five, six and seven. In February, after a two- or three-month negotiation, they made another contract. They wanted to redo that one, and instead of seasons six and seven, it was 5A and 5B, and maybe we’ll do six. They weren’t able to make those.’
He went to to say he was willing to film Horizon around the Yellowstone schedule but the timeline kept changing.
‘Horizon was set in the middle, but Yellowstone was first pos ition. I fit [Horizon] into the gaps. They just kept moving their gaps.’
Costner, amid considerable scrutiny regarding the show’s future, acknowledged feeling ‘bothered’ by the production’s apparent lack of support.
He added: ‘They were silent and that bothered me in the world of how you do things. Why don’t you stick up for me? I went and sold this thing for you. I was going to only do one season. I made it for three. I fulfilled three.
‘So I went from one to three, then I did a fourth one for them and they wanted to do three more. So I made the contract to do that. They imploded. I had a contract to do five, six and seven. I was contracted to do that. There’s nothing I could have done to get out of that, nor was I trying to just figure out how, when we started.
‘I left my movie [Horizon] to be on time for them for 5B,’ Costner continued. ‘I left exactly when they wanted, and it made it hard on me.’
However, he alleged that the crux of the issue lay in the absence of scripts for the final stretch of Yellowstone episodes.
‘It turns out they didn’t have the scripts for 5B. They needed four more days just to complete the first eight episodes. I left early to give them what they needed to have a complete eight, and I felt bad that the audience didn’t get 10. They didn’t have the scripts for anything else.’
‘So, what you read in the end was that I said, “Well, look, I’m doing my movie. If you want me to work a week because you want to kill me or whatever else, I can give you a week.” I really didn’t have that week to give them, but I said, I’ll do that. And then they [spun that] into, I only wanted to work a week.’
Costner also hinted at Sheridan being stretched thin at Paramount, suggesting it as the reason for running out of scripts for the latter half of Yellowstone season 5.
Apart from his involvement in the popular Western, Sheridan oversees a multitude of projects including Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Special Ops: Lioness, and Lawman: Bass Reeves, alongside Yellowstone spin-offs like 1883 and 1923.
Reportedly, Paramount also intends to launch a new Yellowstone sequel/spin-off starring Matthew McConaughey.
‘There’s a lot of product they were putting out,’ Costner said. ‘[Yellowstone] didn’t have the scripts. And they wrote these other three shows. They don’t ever talk about that.’
When asked if things could be worked out if he sat down ‘man-to-man’ with Sheridan, Costner argued: ‘Don’t talk to me about man-to-man.’
‘I was straight up with him and he said what we would do and I believed him and we didn’t get there,’ he said.
Despite the drama, Costner hasn’t closed the door on returning to Yellowstone.
‘I’m very open to coming back. If they’ve got so many other things going on, maybe this circles back and it’s a really cool two seasons,’ he said.
‘Or end it, if the writing’s there and I’m happy with it. I’m open to that. But I took a beating over these guys not speaking up for me and allowing crazy stories to come out.’