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Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has lifted the lid on Kevin Costner’s high-profile departure from the hit show.
The actor quit the hit US series in 2023, having played ranch owner John Dutton on the hit US series since its 2018 premiere, and his decision prompted Sheridan to end the show prematurely. It’s continued in the form of spin-off Dutton Ranch.
At the time, Dances with Wolves actor-director Costner was rumoured to have locked horns with Sheridan over scheduling conflicts, with the producer publicly claiming that he was “disappointed” by the actor’s decision to exit the series.
Kevin Costner quit ‘Yellowstone’ in 2023 (Paramount)
Now Sheridan has revealed exactly what went down, telling The Bill Simmons Podcast that Costner’s tenure on the show was longer than anybody initially expected.
“He was only supposed to be in the first three seasons. That was in his contract. In my mind, that’s when his youngest son takes over [on the show], but the network was so scared of not having Kevin be a part of it.
Sheridan said that Costner “was ready to go” as “he had other things he wanted to do”, including his ill-fated Western trilogy Horizon, but the Bodyguard actor remained on the show for another two seasons as it had become “such a behemoth”.
“It was such a huge hit,” Sheridan explained. “The notion of giving up a hit before it had run out of juice to squeeze is very foreign to a network.
“There was even pressure from some of the cable companies wanting to put it in their deals, that they were going to get an X-number of seasons of Yellowstone to re-up what this cable company is. That’s the power of a really big hit show.”
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After five seasons, Costner decided enough was enough and, according to Sheridan, went “to go do his own thing”.
Costner officially announced his departure from Yellowstone in June 2024, blaming scheduling conflicts with Horizon, the multi-part Western epic he was directing and starring in.
“I did it for five years, and I wanted to work more than once a year,” he said on an episode of the Today Show at the time. “We lost an entire year at one point, and I thought that can’t happen again.”
Taylor Sheridan, the man behind TV’s juggernaut ‘Yellowstone’ franchise (Getty)
Costner claimed he even left filming for his movie for a “whole month” in order to shoot the rest of Yellowstone season five. But when he arrived, there was “no script” and “things imploded”.
“I left exactly when they wanted, and it made it hard on me,” he said. “I’ve never missed a day of work. I’ve never left before fulfilling my contractual obligations.”
Costner claims he did not work for 14 months after Yellowstone production ceased due to lack of scripts. In order to “protect” himself, the actor began work on Horizon to “fill the gaps” and regularly compromised his schedule when the series required him to.
The Yellowstone franchise has become a TV juggernaut, spawning four spin-offs, including 1883, 1923, Marshals and Dutton Ranch, starring Yellowstone leads Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser.
