Kevin Costner Breaks Silence on the ‘Yellowstone’ Drama for the 1st Time: ‘It Wasn’t Truthful’

Kevin Costner broke his silence on the rumored drama surrounding his hit series Yellowstone, addressing the alleged squabbles for the first time.

“I haven’t felt good about it the last year, what with the way they’ve talked about it. It wasn’t truthful,” Costner, 69, told Deadline in an article published on Monday, May 13. “So now I’m talking about a little bit about what the real truth of it was. I made a contract for seasons five, six and seven. In February, after a two- or three-month negotiation, they made another contract. 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.”

In February 2023, Deadline reported that Costner had a disagreement with producers about Yellowstone’s filming schedule and wanted to film eight episodes in one week. However, Costner’s lawyer Marty Singer refuted the claims.

“The idea that Kevin was only willing to work one week on the second half of season 5 of Yellowstone is an absolute lie,” Singer said told Puck News. “It’s ridiculous — and anyone suggesting it shouldn’t be believed for one second. As everyone who knows anything about Kevin is well aware, he is incredibly passionate about the show and has always gone way above and beyond to ensure its success.”

Puck News also reported that Costner and the show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, were butting heads.

“Kevin Costner is famously headstrong and he has been at odds with Taylor Sheridan, the creator of this show, for months now over the days that he’s gonna be shooting for the next part of the season,” reporter Matthew Belloni explained. “He really wanted to put that in front of Yellowstone, and the producers of Yellowstone said, ‘Hey, the show is your first priority, we’re paying you a lot of money to do this show.’ And Kevin just was very headstrong and wanted his way. This was a fight that has been playing out for the past few months now behind the scenes.”

In June 2023, Sheridan addressed the claims about Costner in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered. His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful … and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone,” Sheridan told the outlet. “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.”

While the behind-the-scenes issues with Yellowstone seemed to quiet over the following months, a source exclusively revealed to Life & Style in March that Costner’s castmates like Cole Hauser, Luke Grimes and more didn’t want anything to do with the Tin Cup star and blamed him for the series getting canceled after five seasons.

“He used to hear from Cole and the rest of the gang — but they’ve cut him loose in the months since he walked away from the show,” the source added.