Grimes, who plays Kayce Dutton in the hit Western series, has said that events that open the new season are “the beginning of the end”.
In the opening scenes to series five part two in the episode titled “Desire Is All You Need”, which was released on 10 November, the Dutton family is hit with a bombshell when patriarch and ranch owner John Dutton (Kevin Costner) is found dead in the bathroom of the Montana governor’s mansion.
It was announced earlier this year that lead actor Costner will not appear in the final six episodes of the series after exiting the show in June due to scheduling conflicts. His departure came amid reports that the Dancing With Wolves star had fallen out with Yellowstone showrunner Taylor Sheridan – but the actor denied this. He is said to be focusing on his Western passion project, Horizon – An American Saga.
When asked by The Hollywood Reporter how Costner’s absence moves the series forward, Grimes said John’s death was “the beginning of the end. It launches the season forward with rocket fuel, is what it does”.
Grimes’ character Kayce spent the majority of the series making a life for himself outside of the family, but the actor has suggested that the death of Costner’s character might mean that Kayce has to “step up”.
Speaking about his character, Grimes said: “[Kayce’s] father has always wanted him to do something that he didn’t want to do, which doesn’t work well with a guy like Kayce. He’ll do his best to make you happy, but Kayce is a free spirit and he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do”
“And because the patriarch figure isn’t there, he has to step up and claim his own destiny.”
Speaking about Costner’s departure at the season five part two premiere in New York, Grimes said it was hard to imagine a show without the actor.
“It’s hard to imagine the show without him. But that’s always where the show was headed. It was, can these kids do it without him?”
He continued: “So we all knew it was going to get there, we just didn’t know how or when, and clearly it was different than what we thought. But what it did do was ramp the show up to a 10 and now everything starts to unravel.”
Grimes also admitted that he was a “mess” when he read the scripts for the final episode.
“I saved the last one [of season 5B] for as long as I could, until I couldn’t stand it anymore. Since the very beginning, Taylor [Sheridan] told me he didn’t want me to know how it ended until we got here, because he said that it would maybe make me play things a little differently.”
Yellowstone airs weekly on Paramount Plus.