Kevin Costner wasn’t letting his character John Dutton’s brutal gunshot murder on Sunday’s new episode of Yellowstone get him down.
The 69-year-old Oscar-winner shook it off as he partied in New York City with pals on Monday evening as DailyMail.com got an exclusive look at the images.
The single A-list actor was seen posing with Rainy Castaneda, 30, a long distance runner who was born in Texas. She looked elegant in a little black dress while a flirty necktie.
She also goes by Christian Rain Castañeda, and according to her Linkedin page, she graduated from Texas A&M University School of Law and is an Assistant District Attorney in New York.
The Dances With Wolves star – who is divorcing Christine Baumgartner, 50 – also clinked glasses with publisher Jason Binn of DuJour media. The event was a private meet and greet for Costner hosted by Binn.
This comes a day after he broke his silence after his Yellowstone character John Dutton was killed off in the first few minutes of the season five part two premiere.
The show wasted no time by revealing in the opening moments that Dutton had passed by suicide by gunshot – after Costner acrimoniously exited the show amid a rumored feud with showrunner Taylor Sheridan.
Speaking on The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM on Monday, Costner said: ‘Well, I’m going to be perfectly honest. I didn’t know it was actually airing last night.
‘That’s a swear to God moment. I swear to God. I mean, I’ve been seeing ads with my face all over the place and I’m thinking, “Gee, I’m not in that one.”
‘I’m not in this season. But I didn’t realize yesterday was the thing. Somebody said, “It played last night?’ And I said, “Hmm, okay.” So no, I found out about it this morning actually.”
‘I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.
‘I heard what it was, but no, they’re smart people. Whatever they’re doing, they’ll figure it out. But yeah, I had come up with two possible endings back when it wasn’t going to go as long as it did go.’
When asked how he felt about the suicide he said: ‘I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide. That doesn’t make me wanna rush to go see it.
‘They’re pretty smart people. Maybe it’s a red herring. They’re very good. They’ll figure that out.’
Many fans thought that Dutton committing suicide was completely out of character, though they would come to learn that it was actually a murder simply set up to look like a suicide, which comes after many actors revealing they were kept in the dark about the exit of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton.
Costner made a dramatic exit from the series over scheduling conflicts with his Western movie franchise Horizon, though fans were quite upset at how he was killed off.
It’s not too surprising that Jamie may be blamed, since the show’s last episode nearly two years ago showed Jamie entertaining various ways to have his father killed with his new romantic interest Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri).
She told Jamie there were companies that specialized in making murders look like accidents or even a heart attack.
However, as the episode continued, it became more clear that Sarah seemingly took matters into her own hands and organized John’s death to simply make it look like a suicide… covering up his actual murder.
After fans saw Sarah ultimately confirming her involvement in Governor Dutton’s death, she surprised Jamie at his home, scantily clad with champagne glasses.
She was surprised that he was shedding tears over his father, adding she thought this is what he wanted.
It was previously revealed that John Dutton had actually adopted Jamie, as he tracked down his real father Garrett Randall (Will Patton).
As he was planning to run for governor, after learning that Garrett put out the hit on the whole Dutton family, Jamie killed his biological father himself.
News first started to spread about Costner potentially leaving the show in 2023, amid rumors of a rift between the actor and series creator Taylor Sheridan.
Costner’s attorney Marty Singer denied rumors that Costner refused to film on the show for more than just one week in Season 5 Part 2.
‘The idea that Kevin was only willing to work one week on the second half of Season 5 of Yellowstone is an absolute lie,’ Singer said last summer.
‘It’s ridiculous — and anyone suggesting it shouldn’t be believed for one second,’ he added.
The filming conflicted with Costner’s plans to direct his first movie in 20 years – Horizon – the first in a planned four-part Western movie series.
Costner ultimately confirmed in June 2024 that he would not appear at all in Season 5 Part 2, in a video he posted to Instagram.
‘I want to reach out and let you know that after this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all the things that’s required, and thinking about Yellowstone, that beloved series that I love, that I know you love, I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue Season 5B or into the future,’ Costner said.
‘It was something that really changed me. I loved it. And I know you loved it. And I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning and I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop and I’ll see you at the movies,’ he added.
The news of a sixth season following Beth and Rip have come as a surprise to some fans.
The on-screen couple were reportedly in talks of joining the Yellowstone spinoff The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
In April, when asked about the possibility of a sixth season, Reilly told RadioTimes: ‘I just care about finishing [Yellowstone] with as much care and as much passion and as much love as I can muster to put into it… I’m sort of prepping for that now, [and] that’s my tunnel-vision thing that I care about most.’
‘And what goes on beyond that? There are discussions, you know. Don’t believe everything you read. It’s just nonsense,’ she continued.
Paramount Network also ordered another spin-off entitled 1944, which will follow the prequel shows 1883 and 1923, following earlier generations of the Dutton clan.