Kevin Costner recently made it official that he would not be returning for the conclusion of Yellowstone.
Thus, John Dutton’s storyline will have to be concluded without Costner present. That will certainly cause some issues with writing, and probably the conclusion of the show itself. It’s somewhat of a weight off of the shoulders of Yellowstone fans knowing that Costner won’t return, with the long will-he, won’t-he dance that took place over the past year or so.
Then again, it’ll be challenging to watch the back half of season five without Costner there pushing the story along, as he has throughout most of the Yellowstone’s tenure. One of the fans that is upset the 69-year-old actor won’t be returning is sports talkshow host Rich Eisen (of The Rich Eisen Show). Fortunately for him, he was able to have Costner on his show and told him (in quite an emotional way) that he was “gutted” John Dutton wouldn’t be there to close out the show.
Costner tried to explain his reasoning for stepping away in the interview, saying:
“I loved making that thing. When it came to me, it wasn’t on the radar of anyone. I recognized what I thought was great writing, and what it could be. And I believed so much in it that I wanted to take people on that ride. A belief stood behind Taylor Sheridan’s good writing.
I think I tried to prop it up that way, and did. One season turned into five. Then, obviously, I wanted to work more than once a year, and I kept Yellowstone in first position. But it needed to stay on course. It needed to have an exact amount of time so that I could go ahead and do other things.”
Costner went on to say that his desire to work more than once a year started to conflict with Yellowstone and the delays around it. The actor’s passion project, Horizon: An American Saga, played a big role in needing to know more about a potential Yellowstone shooting schedule.
Kevin elaborated that there were hundreds of people waiting for him to shoot Horizon, and at one point, he had to choose one or the other. Instead of leaving things up in the air, Costner decided to put the Yellowstone questions to rest, and that’s why he put out the video saying he wouldn’t be back:
“I just decided, because I was in the midst of doing press for Horizon, (people asking) ‘What are you going to do?’ And I’m saying, ‘I like this thing, I would like to continue.’ But because there didn’t seem to be anything really in motion, I just thought, ‘Well let’s take away the mystery.’
Until something is really clear to me, I just decided for people that have followed the kind of movies I want to be a part of, I was just going to let them know I’m not doing it.”
