After “Yellowstone” exit
Kevin Costner denies blame
In a new interview, Kevin Costner spoke about the background to his exit from the western series “Yellowstone.”
© ddp/Nina Prommer/ZUMA Press Wire
Kevin Costner has commented on his “Yellowstone” farewell. According to the star, others are to blame for this and not himself.
Kevin Costner’s (69) exit from “Yellowstone” last year continues to make waves in the USA. After all, the neo-Western show by series creator Taylor Sheridan (53) is the most successful series on classic, linear US television. Lead actor Costner, who portrays family patriarch John Dutton in “Yellowstone,” is said to tell the industry magazine According to Variety, they earned a staggering $1.3 million per episode.
Kevin Costner denies blame for “Yellowstone” departure
In May 2023 became known, that Costner should not return for the second half of the final, fifth season of “Yellowstone”. This was followed by a whole series of mutual accusations by those involved and numerous media reports about the background to Costner’s departure. This is what reported the industry magazine “Deadline” over a year ago that Costner had simply agreed to give up a week of his valuable time to film the “Yellowstone” finale.
The US media often cited the filming of his own two-part Western epic “Horizon: An American Saga” as the reason for the two-time Oscar winner’s short time. In the lavish production, which will premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the 69-year-old plays the leading role, directs, produces and is also responsible for the script.
Scheduling conflicts and production delays
But Kevin Costner himself now has these reports contradicted in a new interview with Deadline: “I didn’t have a good feeling about the way they talked about it last year. It wasn’t truthful. So now I’m talking a little bit about what the real truth was,” the star explains in the interview.
Costner further explains that he worked on the first half of the final “Yellowstone” season for 43 days. He then turned to his own project “Horizon” and then – most likely in spring 2023 – was available for filming the second half of the fifth “Yellowstone” season.
Costner describes what happened next: “And then things imploded […]. I left my movie to be there on time for Season 5B. I left exactly when they wanted me to and that made it difficult for me. It turned out they didn’t have the scripts ready for 5B.”
Due to the delay, Costner had to return to his own project “Horizon” at a certain point. “I fitted ‘Horizon’ into the gaps. But they just kept moving the gaps around,” Costner said.
Kevin Costner “had to take a beating”
At that time, the star offered the “Yellowstone” production an additional week for filming. However, this offer was twisted in US media such as the “Deadline” report mentioned at the beginning to mean that he was only willing to return to filming “Yellowstone” for a week.
Despite all these squabbles, Costner is still ready and willing to be back in front of the camera for the western series in the future. Filming for the second half of season five had to be postponed last year due to the double strike by screenwriters and actors in Hollywood. They are now scheduled to take place in the spring and summer of this year.
So Costner expresses the faint hope that the series could possibly return to him. “I’m open to something like that. But I had to take a beating because these people didn’t stand up for me and allowed crazy stories to spread. I’m not happy about that.”
The second half of the final “Yellowstone” season should according to the current status will premiere on the US channel Paramount Network in November. A sequel series with the working title “2024” is planned for the time after the series ends. The story of the Dutton family will be told with new and some well-known characters. Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey (54) is said to have been considered for the lead role – and a possible Kevin Costner replacement, as US industry magazines reported. However, this has not yet been officially confirmed.