Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has revealed the reasons behind Kevin Costner’s abrupt exit from the hit show.
The Oscar winner was the star of the modern Western, about the trials of the Dutton family, who own a ranch in the titular national park. After being a prominent part of the first four seasons, and the first half of the show’s fifth and final season, Costner’s character, John Dutton, was written out of the show in the second half, with rumours of creative differences and an official explanation of scheduling conflicts.
In 2024, Costner blamed the exit on the production moving shooting schedules, and criticised his collaborators for not “speaking up” for him. In a new interview with The Bill Simmons Podcast, Sheridan gave his perspective. “Kevin was only supposed to be in the first three seasons,” he said. “That was in his contract. In my mind, that’s when his [character’s] youngest son takes over, and then we have to watch [them] lose that ranch, or not lose the ranch, whatever the case is going to be.“
“The network was so scared of not having Kevin be a part of it,” Sheridan continued. “He had other things he wanted to do, but he stayed on for another two seasons, and that was just because the show was such a behemoth. It was such a huge hit that the notion of giving up a hit before it had run out of juice to squeeze is very foreign to a network.”
He concluded: “Finally, Kevin hit a point where he’s like, ‘I gotta do my own thing.’ We had originally conceived it together that it was three seasons, and then the baton is handed. I thought it wouldn’t have been better for the show because we had tried to tread water for a bit there. I think it was pretty evident.”
Yellowstone concluded in 2024, with two prequel series, 1883 and 1923, chronicling the ancestors of the Dutton family. Two present-day spin-offs, Marshalls and Dutton Ranch, debuted this year.
Elsewhere, Taylor Sheridan hit out at the creative system in Hollywood, lashing out at “marketing executives” who run Hollywood but know “nothing” about storytelling.