Josh Lucas is optimistic about returning for last half of “Yellowstone's ”final“ ”season: 'I sure hope so'

The actor said that series creator Taylor Sheridan told him "we're gonna finish and we're gonna definitely rely on some flashbacks to tell the story."

Giddy up, Yellowstone fans, because it sounds like the second half of the Western’s final season may have a few throwbacks in store.

Josh Lucas revealed in a recent interview with SiriusXM’s The Spotlight with Jessica Shaw that he’s “hopeful” he’ll get the chance to return as the younger version of Kevin Costner’s character John Dutton before the series officially rides off into the sunset.

“You know, I sure hope so! I think so. I asked [series creator Taylor Sheridan] a while back,” Lucas said. “I sent him a text… because I did genuinely want to thank him for the experience, because I love being there. I love being out on those horses. I love being on that land.”

Lucas — who appears in multiple flashbacks set in the 1990s — marveled over the “180-mile corridor” of Montana that Yellowstone films on each season, calling the area “so big and so beautiful and so remote.”

“You're out there sometimes and you just look around and you think, ‘This is nature at its highest level,’ and then to be on horseback with it is so spectacular,” he recalled. “Because of that, I texted him and said, ‘You know, I really just wanna thank you for the experience,’ because I sort of had assumed it was over with based on, you know, what I think we're all hearing and assuming.”

Rumors swirled last year about Yellowstone’s longevity after Deadline reported that Paramount was aiming to end the series because Costner wanted to reduce his filming time on the show. His costar, Wes Bentley, later quashed those rumors, telling Entertainment Weekly that they were “a bit of drama over nothing."

Lucas said that Sheridan ended up telling him something similar. “He said, ‘No, we're gonna go back and we're gonna finish and we're gonna definitely rely on some flashbacks to tell the story,’” he remembered. “So I sure hope so.”

Last year, Paramount announced that the long-awaited second half of the fifth season of Yellowstone would finally be released in November 2024, exactly two years after the first part of the season aired on the network. Production on the Western was delayed in part due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes last summer.

In addition to the final series, the network also revealed last year that two new spinoffs are set to follow the complicated lives of the Dutton family in both 1944 and 2024, respectively. Yellowstone already has two active spinoffs: 1883, starring Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and 1923, featuring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Yellowstone creator 'disappointed' by Kevin Costner's exit, says it impacts 'closure of his character'

• No, Kevin Costner's divorce doesn't have anything to do with Yellowstone ending

• Yellowstone to end with season 5, new sequel series announced

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.