Around the time Kevin Costner dropped out of Yellowstone, it was announced that the bifurcated fifth season would be its final run of episodes. After all, co-creator Taylor Sheridan has so much going on, and there are so many other series in the Yellowstone universe. And so we all expected Season 5B to be the beginning of the end when it airs Nov. 10, but we were wrong. Apparently, deals are in the works to continue Yellowstone into Season 6, still without Costner but with Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser returning. As Deadline reports:
“Sources stress that the deals are not done but the intention is for
Yellowstone
‘s story to continue past Season 5B, which is expected to bid farewell to its original lead character, Kevin Costner’s John Dutton. (Costner has confirmed that he won’t appear in the upcoming episodes.) Meanwhile, Reilly and Hauser had been negotiating new deals for months, initially thought to be for a Yellowstone offshot. The franchise’s first contemporary spinoff,The Madison
, starring Michelle Pfeiffer
, is slated to follow Season 5B of the mothership series.”
We’re not sure if The Madison will intersect with Yellowstone, but it’s looking more and more like Reilly and Hauser (along with others from the show) want to continue the franchise either way. The series follows the Dutton family through the many conflicts they encounter or initiate as a result of their gigantic cattle ranch. While things are seemingly coming to a head in Season 5, we may be in for a cliffhanger instead of closure.
Can Yellowstone Survive Without Kevin Costner?
Kevin Costner has played the significant patriarch of the Dutton family ever since the first episode of Yellowstone premiered in June 2018, but announced in May 2023 that he would not appear in any further episodes. This means he won’t be in any of Season 5B, and surely won’t be in a possible Season 6. It remains to be seen if Yellowstone can continue its tangled webs of drama and intrigue without his star power and magnetism. Perhaps the audience response to the Costner-less Season 5B will truly determine whether Season 6 is actually confirmed or not.
Costner himself is busy with a gigantic, complicated project of his own, with the filmmaker and star attempting to continue his epic film series, Horizon: An American Saga. The release of Chapter 1 was a massive disappointment both critically and financially, which has reshaped the future of these films. However, its recent streaming release on Max has created a new fanbase and garnered more attention to the project. Chapter 2 is already finished and will premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sep. 7, but its theatrical release date has been postponed for now due to the reactions to the first film. Who knows, maybe Costner will need to return to Yellowstone for some quick cash to finance more Horizon.
You can follow all the drama about Kevin Costner and Yellowstone in our video below:
