John Dutton’s fate is on everyone’s minds — and Kevin Costner doesn’t exactly have an answer.
On the Today show on June 17, the actor, 69, addressed his contentious exit from Yellowstone as he reiterated that the reason behind the move was purely logistical.
“Number one: I did it for five years, okay, and I wanna 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, adding that “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.”
By “both of them,” Costner means his four-part Western epic, Horizon: An American Saga, and the Paramount series, on which he stars as the Dutton family patriarch.
“Who loves it more than myself and Taylor [Sheridan]?” Costner continued, referring to the series’ creator, with whom he’d reportedly had creative differences.
“I’ve supported that thing and I have loved it. It’s been really important to me. I would love to go back under the right circumstances. I think that all of us want [that],” he said, reiterating that it “needs to be the right circumstances.”
“There’s always a chance. I love the thing – you’ve gotta be really clear about that.”
Costner has been clear that he made Yellowstone his “first priority,” despite reports stating otherwise, and his lack of involvement in part two of season five — the series’ last — was a result of delays in receiving the scripts.
He told Deadline that unfinished scripts and scheduling conflicts “shut down one whole season,” delaying the series for over a year, and that led to his exit. The narrative that it was the result of behind-the-scenes tension and creative differences frustrated him.
“I have taken a beating from those f—ing guys and I know a lot of times where it’s coming from. I just elected not to get into that,” he said. “I made Yellowstone the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong.”
He’s still open to a potential return to the Dutton ranch, though.
In April, he told Entertainment Tonight that he’d “like to be able to [return] but we haven’t been able to,” adding, “I hope it [works out].”
“Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it.”
On May 20, production on the final installment of the Western series began in Montana. The final part of season 5 is slated to return in November after facing delays due to the writers’ strike.
Per a release, the upcoming episodes will see the Dutton family “amid shifting alliances, unsolved murders, open wounds and hard-earned respect,” as the ranch “is in constant conflict with those it borders — an expanding town, an Indian reservation and America’s first national park.”