Timing is everything — and where Yellowstone is concerned, it seems to have had everything to do with Kevin Costner‘s departure as the Dutton family’s beleaguered patriarch, John. In an attempt to set the record straight about his exit ahead of Season 5B, the Golden Globe winner tells GQ that yes, ultimately, scheduling was to blame. Whether because of COVID, strikes or other issues, “we very rarely started [production] when we said we would, and we didn’t finish when we said we would.
“And I was OK with that… ” he adds, “but it wasn’t a trend that could continue for me.” Certainly not if he hoped to lock in dates to make his big-screen Western Horizon.
The breaking point between Costner, Paramount Network and 101 Studios seems to have arrived when the decision was made to split Yellows tone’s fifth season into two parts. “Their big plan was to suddenly do eight [episodes] now and then in the fall do eight more,” he recalls. “I said, ‘I have a contract to do Horizon, and I have people and money.’ I think there was a belief that I couldn’t get it mounted.” But the writer-director-star managed to pull it off.
According to Costner, he continued trying to be a team player. When he found himself with a free week, he offered it to Yellowstone. “And somebody picked up the idea that I only wanted to work one week,” he says. “And that has been a carryover thing that I have seen in magazines: that I’ve only wanted to work one week.”
That was not the case, the actor argues. Nevertheless, he was cast as “the hold-up,” as it were. “My big disappointment is I never heard Paramount or 101 really come to my defense and say, ‘That’s not true. He was going to do three more seasons… That’s really f–king bothered me, that none of them would actually try to set the record straight.”
Costner maintains that he is still willing to reprise his role. Co-creator Taylor Sheridan “and I know what the conditions are for coming back, and I’ll just keep that between ourselves.” But since Season 5B has already begun production — and last we heard, John had been written out — it seems doubtful that we will get to see him ride into the sunset.