Kevin Costner Finally Opens Up About 'Yellowstone' Drama, and He's Not Happy
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It's been a year and a half since the Yellowstone drama surrounding Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan ensued. You might remember that alarming day in May 2023 when it was announced that Costner was leaving the series before the storyline could finish—raising questions as to just what could be going on behind-the-scenes. (Conflicts between Yellowstone's production schedule and Costner's Horizon movie saga were at the forefront of the disagreement.)
While Sheridan had a lot to say about the matter early on, the leading actor of the series— who famously plays John Dutton on Yellowstone—had remained relatively silent on the issue until now.
Costner has finally spoken out in a rather revealing "tell all" interview with Deadline. And oh, you're in for a treat!
Costner, whose character is the patriarch of the Dutton family, set the record straight when he was asked about his original movie saga being the cause of the issues.
"That’s not true," the actor said. "Basically, we were starting [Yellowstone] in April and May, and we’d usually go through August. We’d do 10 [episodes]. We didn’t even get 10 done during that time. I only worked 43 days... That’s a lie. That’s not correct."
Costner followed up by stating that he lived up to his contract and reemphasized that the issues were not caused by him. He even went as far as to say that he never got to shoot the latter half of season 5 (aka the series finale) due to a lack of script.
"You’ve been reading one version [of this behind-the-scenes drama] for a year and a half," he said. "I left my movie to be on time for them for 5B. I left exactly when they wanted, and it made it hard on me. It turns out they didn’t have the scripts for 5B."
So, when it was apparent that the show would write him off, Costner stated that he had even offered a week of his time in order to help the show's writers and producers make that happen.
"I really didn’t have that week to give them, but I said, I’ll do that. And then they [spun that] into, I only wanted to work a week," Costner said.
Phew! Now he's really getting down to the nitty-gritty of it all.
According to Costner, production of Yellowstone was shutdown for 14 months—due to reasons beyond the cast's control. "I made Yellowstone the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong," he says. "I did not initiate any of those things. They did. They were doing a tap dance and [Taylor Sheridan] was also having to write so much. And I don’t know why they didn’t stick up for me."
It's clear now that Costner is not insinuating that Sheridan was the problem, but instead the show's studios and production companies.
All of this to say, Costner is more than willing to come back!
"I’m very open to coming back. If they’ve got so many other things going on, maybe this circles back and it’s a really cool two seasons... But if the writing is there, I will be there too," he claims.
Well, that was a lot to take in, but it's good that fans now know where Costner stands. The latter half of Yellowstone season 5 is slated to premiere in November 2024. Here's to hoping that John Dutton makes an appearance after all!
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