It’s not completely uncommon for actors to hold certain contract quirks for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, it just involves some little quirks with scheduling or comfort for them. Oftentimes, big stars finagle contracts to maintain a measure of creative control with the director. This appears to be the case on how Taylor Sheridan nabs Kevin Costner for Yellowstone. However, the clause he gets is a particularly strange one.
Recently, Hollywood insider Matthew Belloni reveals a little bit of exclusive information surrounding the final Yellowstone season for Puck News. Evidently, Taylor Sheridan has completely written Kevin Costner out of the second half of the final season of Yellowstone. It’s not out of a complete lack of effort though. Costner tries to rejoin and even pushes for a potential sixth and seventh season. However, his involvement comes with a number of perks like more money and a reduced film schedule. Most notably, he also pushed for the right to review, approve, and even change Sheridan’s scripts.
Obviously, Taylor didn’t budge there. However, what we didn’t know is that Kevin Costner already held a measure of creative authority on the show.
Kevin Costner Holds a Crucial Clause That Alters How Taylor Sheridan Writes His Character Off
According to Matthew Belloni, Costner negotiates a clever but strange clause in his initial Yellowstone contract. Kevin holds a ‘moral death’ provision that prohibits Sheridan from writing him off in certain ways he wouldn’t cosign.
This may be a non issue though. Apparently, Sheridan and company have always intended to shed Costner from this final installment of Yellowstone. Kelly Reilly (Beth Dutton on the show) claims that Kevin’s departure has always been accounted for by Sheridan and the team. “The absence was part of the ending. That’s not something that we had to pivot, that was already written into the tapestry of the story. It was always going to happen, it just happened a little bit differently,” she says.