Either the Dutton family story really is ending with the fifth season of “Yellowstone” (the show’s cast just finally confirmed that the flagship show is coming to an end), or Jamie Dutton is going to die. Those are, at least, the two options that make the most sense when it comes to “Yellowstone” star Wes Bentley’s latest comments to the press about the last season of the hyper-popular Western drama. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bentley seems to confirm that the Yellowstone extended universe will soon be closing the book on his character, the adopted son of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton who’s been at odds with the family on and off for much of the series.
“It’s one of the biggest things I’ve ever been a part of, and it’s a character that’s a double-edged sword,” Bentley told EW. He added: “It’s both very satisfying to play a character who’s given so much emotional work to do, but it also takes its toll. I’m excited to let him go, but I’m also sad to let him go.”
If Bentley is about to let Jamie go, it seems more than a little likely that he won’t make it out of the final season of “Yellowstone” alive. Fellow castmates including Kelly Reilly and Luke Grimes also made sentimental statements about the show’s ending, but with a spinoff in the works and reports about a potential series continuation swirling, they didn’t drop hints about their characters’ ending. Of course, it’s also possible that Bentley is doing some MCU-level misdirection here, and Jamie will pop up in a future Taylor Sheridan property after all.
News that the show’s fifth season would be its last came back in May 2023 (shortly after Costner announced he was leaving the show), with a sequel series reportedly in the works at the time. Since then, details have emerged about star Costner’s reasons for departing, with series creator Taylor Sheridan reportedly suggesting that it was related to Costner’s passion project, “Horizon,” Costner claiming that Sheridan got busy with the show’s spinoffs and stopped delivering scripts for “Yellowstone,” and most reports having something to do with the scheduling of the two-part fifth season. “I’m disappointed in the production,” Costner reportedly said during an unrelated court appearance, explaining that pay negotiations for the split season dragged on and eventually broke down.
Will Jamie die by the end of Yellowstone?
All of this is to say that the fate of “Yellowstone” seemed pretty set in stone once the fifth season was reported to be its last, but the show has long been in flux behind the scenes. Last month, Deadline reported that two fan favorite characters, Kelly Reilly’s Beth and Cole Hauser’s Rip, might continue on in a future season of the show, rekindling hope that the end of John Dutton won’t necessarily mean the end of this Montana-set succession drama. There’s also the new spinoff series “The Madison,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Patrick J. Adams, to consider. In the EW interview, Reilly says that Sheridan always planned 5 seasons for “Yellowstone,” referring to the main show as “this part of ‘Yellowstone'” and celebrating the fact that, as she puts it, “we got to finish something rather than draw something out or prolong it.”
Whether or not some “Yellowstone” characters will continue appearing on another Paramount Network show, Bentley’s comments sound like his own character’s ending will be pretty final. The midseason finale, which aired way back in January 2023, set up Jamie and Beth on a collision course that Bentley once told EW he thought would likely be deadly. “I think he has to [kill Beth],” Bentley told the outlet. “There’s an element of: This has to happen now because the play that’s been made only allows for that. He knows this. They’re gonna kill him now, like he thought they would if he played the impeachment game.” He conceded that he wasn’t sure whether or not Jamie could actually kill his sister “with his bare hands,” as she’s even closer to him than his birth father (who Jamie murdered back in the season 4 finale). “Part of the pain and hate between them comes from the loss of that wonderful relationship they had before,” the actor explained. It’s been a long, complicated road to the end of “Yellowstone,” and it seems more likely than ever that the show’s farewell season will get bloody.
The final episodes of “Yellowstone” season 5 will debut November 10, 2024, on Paramount Network.