The Yellowstone universe is still reeling from the news of Kevin Costner’s exit because it is hard to envisage a happy ending for Yellowstone without John Dutton. Yellowstone fans will, therefore, be pleased with any news suggesting the return of Costner to the show, albeit in a reduced role. While no concrete statements have been given by either Paramount or Costner’s representatives so far, rumors from both camps have always suggested that Costner’s return isn’t entirely impossible and that is exactly what Costner’s comments in a recent interview with ET confirm.
The Oscar winner’s exit from Yellowstone, midway through the fifth season, was announced after a rumored disagreement with the showrunners. According to rumors from the Yellowstone creator’s (Taylor Sheridan) camp, Costner, who wanted more time to work on his upcoming four-part Western movie series Horizon: An American Saga, kept asking to spend unacceptably less time on the Yellowstone set creating a scheduling crisis. On the other hand, Costner’s camp accused Sheridan of delaying the actor’s scripts as he was too busy working on his other projects.
However, Taylor Sheridan downplayed the disagreement in his interview with THR claiming that there was no difference between him and Costner that couldn’t be resolved with a simple phone call. Sheridan made his comments amidst strong accusations against him for apparently having “a god complex” on the sets of Yellowstone and other shows that he directs. However, staying away from the politics, both Costner and Sheridan have retained a lot of respect from each other in their public interviews, and, his return to the Yellowstone set is not entirely out of the question.
What did Costner say about his potential return to Yellowstone?
While speaking to ET at the 2024 Cinemacon in Las Vegas, Kevin Costner said he would have loved to be a part of the final part of Yellowstone’s fifth season but he hasn’t been able to. “…I thought I was going to make seven [seasons] but right now we’re at five. So how it works out — I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe it will. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it,” Costner continued.
Costner was at Cinemacon 2024 as part of the marketing campaign for his four-part Western movie series Horizon, distributed by Warner Bros, whose first part will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2024. According to Costner, Horizon is his passion project that has been in the works for over 30 years, which explains the huge sacrifices he made to bring the movie to the screens, including mortgaging his 10-acre beachfront property in Santa Barbara, California to fund the production.
The first installment of Horizon will be released on June 28, 2024, with the second one coming on August 16 2024 in what is expected to be the first half of the 15-year story covering the Western expansion of the United States before and after the Civil War. However, there have been reports that Costner is experiencing funding difficulties as far as the two last installments of Horizon are concerned, which means Costner could be able to take a break from his passion project and make some time for Yellowstone after all.
Is Kevin Costner in talks to return to Yellowstone?
Kevin Costner’s public admission to his desire to return to Yellowstone feels like a direct appeal to Taylor Sheridan and Paramount for the chance for him to return. The interview comes after rumors that emerged in February 2024 from Puck’s Matt Belloni’s What I’m Hearing newsletter stating that Costner’s representatives had approached Taylor Sheridan and Paramount. According to the report, Costner’s team wanted Paramount to give him the chance to film John Dutton’s final scenes to give the character a befitting conclusion.
However, in his interview with THR in June 2023, Taylor Sheridan had already insisted that he always had a plan to continue the show without Kevin Costner and that his exit would only “truncate rather than alter” the ending of Costner’s character. Still, despite saying he has a plan for Yellowstone without Costner, Taylor never shut the doors to the star’s return.
“…I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone. But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one,” he said.
While all parties seem interested in working on a mutual solution that will enable Costner to return to Yellowstone, a lot of legal issues seem to be standing in the way. Costner reportedly gave a series of demands to the showrunners, including the demand for increased pay which Paramount apparently rejected. Costner then threatened to sue Paramount over the pay dispute claiming that the network offered him a “rich sum” to return for the filming of the sixth and seventh seasons of Yellowstone but then walked away from the negotiations.
Is it too late for Kevin Costner to return to Yellowstone?
Paramount announced on November 2 2023 that Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 will be released in November 2024 which is fast approaching, meaning the creators are under a lot of pressure to conclude filming. The filming was scheduled to happen between Summer and Spring 2024, which means there is a very short window for the inclusion of Kevin Costner on the set if an agreement could be reached. However, Costner’s return would mean that the creators have to alter the scripts to accommodate him which could be hectic for the writing team.
The pressure to give the show a perfect ending that lives up to the high expectations of the fan base could still force Sheridan to evaluate all his options as far as the fate of John Dutton is concerned. Taylor Sheridan initially wrote Yellowstone to be a feature-length movie but then adjusted it to a hit show when Paramount took up the project. Tweaking the story to get a conclusive ending without the main character is, therefore, not an impossibility for him. Fans have also grown to love other characters in the show over the years, which meant that Yellowstone doesn’t entirely revolve around John Dutton anymore.
The launch of multiple spinoffs to Yellowstone has also given fans more Duttons to relate to in the Yellowstone Universe, and this could help in Sheridan’s plan to write John Dutton out of the flagship series. Many fans have come to terms with Costner’s exit and believe that the remaining cast members can see the final part of the show through if Taylor gets his scripts right, which, as things stand, seems more likely than Costner returning.
Does Costner have a clause in his contract preventing a “summary” death for John Dutton?
The fate of John Dutton is a major concern for Yellowstone fans after the news of Kevin Costner’s exit. A recent string of rumors from What I’m Hearing at Puck suggested that Kevin Costner’s contract with Paramount includes “a moral death clause” for John Dutton which sounds like a happy ending for John Dutton could still be in the picture.
Unfortunately, this clause doesn’t prevent the creators from choosing how John Dutton dies, and, as Kevin Costner himself confirmed, John Dutton’s fate is now in Taylor Sheridan’s hands. Besides, lots of things could still pass as a “moral death” including drowning in the Yellowstone River, or God forbid, a form of poetic justice for the Dutton patriarch at The Train Station.
On his part, Taylor Sheridan insisted that he doesn’t do ” f*ck you car crashes” for his characters suggesting that he will still give John Dutton a befitting end. “Whether [Dutton’s fate] inflates [Costner’s] ego or insults is collateral damage that I don’t factor in with regard to storytelling,” Sheridan said regarding his thoughts on how he will deal with John Dutton’s fate.