Is Kevin Costner Returning to Yellowstone?
It's been a wild ride for Yellowstone fans, and while there's still a long wait ahead before the long-promised finale episodes of the series, it's looking increasingly likely that at least one famous face from the cast won't be making an appearance.
Initial reports started in late 2023, when Hollywood insider Matt Belloni indicated that Kevin Costner, who plays one of the show's protagonists, John Dutton, would not be returning for the final set of episodes.
“Yellowstone will probably go back into production at the beginning of the year. So it could be out this spring or summer," Belloni said on an October 30, 2023 episode of his podcast The Town—it's since been announced that the show will return in November 2024. "Scripts are already written, I’m told, or are being written. And the question is whether Costner is in those final episodes of this season of Yellowstone. And my understanding is that, as of now, he is not going to be in those episodes.”
In a March 2024 post to Puck, Belloni echoed the sentiment, saying that while Costner has reportedly said he plans to return, "for at least a cameo and possibly more" that there are no discussions from within the production to include him. That same report also indicated that the scripts for the remaining episodes of the series have been completed, evidently without the inclusion of Costner's John.
Though both Paramount Network and Costner himself have remained largely silent on the subject in the year since the show's conclusion was announced, while promoting his upcoming film Horizon: An American Saga, Costner opened up about his potential return.
"I'd like to be able to do it but we haven't been able to," Costner told ET in April 2024. "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."
The possibility of Costner's participation, or lack thereof, in the second half of season five (the first half debuted in November 2022, giving way to a protracted hiatus) has been the source of speculation for some time. Last spring, Costner announced that he would be exiting the series after the fifth season—shortly afterwards, it was revealed that the show itself would be coming to a close after the second half of the season, likely to be replaced with the in-the-works spin-off show currently titled 2024.
Documents related to Costner's divorce last summer seemed to call this continuing role on the show into question. In them, the actor wrote, "I will earn substantially less in 2023 than I did in 2022. This is because I am no longer under contract for 'Yellowstone,' the principal source of my income last year." In a later hearing, Costner added, "I’ve been told it’s a little disappointing that [it’s] the #1 show on TV, I’m not participating."
A report by Puck later stated that Costner's Yellowstone contract includes a "moral death" clause, which gives general terms for the ways that John Dutton can and cannot be killed on the show, however no official announcements about Costner's role in the series's final episodes have been made by the actor's team or the production.
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