Earlier Thursday, Paramount revealed that the second half of the fifth and final season of the Taylor Sheridan series will premiere Sunday, November 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. The announcement made no mention of whether Costner’s John Dutton would appear in those final episodes; instead, fans had to seek out recent interviews with Costner to see whether he revealed anything about returning to the show that helped to revive his career six years ago.
And boy, has Costner been saying a lot. In a recent interview with People, the actor expressed disappointment over how none of his former co-stars came to his defense when the original narrative surrounding his absence was solely blamed on his inflexible filming schedule for Horizon: An American Saga.
“I read all the stories,” he said. “I was disappointed that nobody on their side… ever stepped up to defend what it was I actually did for them. There came a moment where I thought, ‘Wow, when is somebody going to say something about what I have done versus what I haven’t done?’”
Costner also said that he would be open to returning to finish up the Yellowstone saga, but it would have to be under certain conditions.
“I’ve always felt that…It might be an interesting moment to come back and finish the mythology of this modern-day family,” he said. “And if that happens, I would step into it if I agreed with how it was being done.”
Yellowstone. “Number one, I did it for five years, OK, and I want to work more than once a year. We lost an entire year at one point and I thought, ‘Well that can’t ever happen again.’ It was well over a year.”
And in May, Costner told Deadline’s Mike Fleming that he made a contract to play Dutton for seasons five, six and seven. He promised to stick around.
“After a two- or three-month negotiation, they made another contract, he said at the time. “They wanted to redo that one, and instead of seasons six and seven, it was 5A and 5B, and maybe we’ll do six. They weren’t able to make those. Horizon was set in the middle, but Yellowstone was first position. I fit [Horizon] into the gaps. They just kept moving their gaps.”
Costner went on to say he lived up to the “truth of the contract.” He said he never shot the second half of season five because “there was no script. And then things imploded.”
That implosion occurred around February of 2023, Matthew McConaughey.
Disagreements over Costner’s film schedule led to the shocking announcement, though Paramount at the time tried to take the sting out of the reveal by saying “Kevin Costner is a big part of Yellowstone and we hope that’s the case for a long time to come. Thanks to the brilliant mind of Taylor Sheridan, we are always working on franchise expansions of this incredible world he has built. Matthew McConaughey is a phenomenal talent with whom we’d love to partner.”
Paramount has yet to reveal any more details about the spinoff. It also hasn’t said how many episodes fans can expect for the end of Yellowstone.
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All the silly soap’s fans are dumping on Costner because Sheridan couldn’t maintain a schedule while doing four or five shows at once.
And it’s more than a little delusional that they’re comparing an epic Costner’s been planning for decades to some TV fluff. To Sheridan fans – when your hero has a boatload of Oscars or has shepherded and starred in as many classics, then you can begin to compare him to Costner.
Someone needs to tell Kevin Costner that Paramount is busying trying to find a new owner.
Taylor Sheridan’s TV shows are the foundation for Paramount+. Sheridan and Dick Wolf are the two most important people at Paramount. Any actor challenging those prolific producers will lose every time
Yellowstone is not told chronologically and two actors play John Dutton. Sheridan could bring Costner back in a flashback scene for the series finale or in flashbacks for the upcoming spin-off series
Costner needs to tone down all this public rhetoric though. Sheridan created Yellowstone and hand-picked the cast. This show is a huge group effort, period
Everyone here is aware that there was a strike that stopped all of Hollywood production, not just this show right?
Evidently you are not aware of Costner being sued due to breach, over him refusing to show up for Takes. So a bit more than a strike involved here
After HORIZON tanks, he’ll come crawling back.
He already knows Horizon is going to tank. Critics were brutal saying “it’s basically a TV series similar to ‘1883’ but not as good.” Costner doesn’t even appear in the film until after the first hour