Kevin Costner Is Reportedly Leaving Yellowstone After Season 5

Paramount Network’s Yellowstone took years to achieve the kind of widespread pop culture acclaim that matched up with its monster ratings, chart-topping DVD sales, and mass appeal throughout the U.S.. But it only took a few months for all that success and goodwill to implode over alleged behind-the-scenes conflicts tied to Kevin Costner’s scheduling and eagerness to work on other projects like his upcoming pair of Horizon western features. While nothing official has been announced by the network or creator Taylor Sheridan, it’s now being reported that Costner is indeed destined to exit the role of John Dutton after Season 5, though it’s still unclear when (or if) we’ll actually see the remaining episodes.

Kevin Costner potentially vacating his beloved role as the Dutton family patriarch was already a big part of fan discussions after the initial rumors broke, and they only grew stronger once it was confirmed that Paramount is developing a spinoff to be fronted by Matthew McConaughey. Now, E! News is citing sources close to production in reporting that the Oscar-winning filmmaker will not be returning to the Yellowstone-verse beyond Season 5. And it’s hard to imagine the western drama will continue without its key star, though there are 100% ways for Taylor Sheridan to go that route creatively, given how stacked, talented, and equally beloved the show’s other lead cast members are.

On top of that claim, other production sources say they’re still as out of the loop as fans are about when the Yellowstone cast and crew will reconvene to film the remaining six episodes of Season 5. It’s been rumored that filming delays may have been tied to scripts not being on time initially, which then snowballed into whatever actually went down that sparked the past few months of BTS reports.

If Taylor Sheridan wasn’t finished penning the remaining episodes for the season, then that possibly tacks on an extended production delay, due to the latest WGA writers strike, which went into effect on the morning of May 2. Sheridan's upcoming limited series Lawmen: The Bass Reeves Story is currently in production in Texas, though with writer and creator Chad Feehan on-hand day to day as showrunner. Clearly, it's not yet known what the script situation is, but hopefully that will make its way through the grapevine soon.

This disappointing news comes soon after it was revealed that Kevin Costner is divorcing his wife of 18 years, Christine Baumgartner, with those proceedings now being underway. As well as after it was reported that Costner's Horizon was possibly going into production, with sets and locations already being established.

Season 5 aired its midseason finale back on January 1, although none of the current season's episodes are available yet to stream with a Peacock subscription. But will that be the only time we see the Duttons on TV in a new capacity this year? And will this conflict affect other upcoming Yellowstone franchise shows?