The “Yellowstone” universe was forever altered by the death of family patriarch John Dutton in the show’s fifth and final season, but fans of the Paramount Network drama may be surprised to learn that Kevin Costner’s character was originally supposed to exit much earlier.
“Kevin was only supposed to be in the first three seasons,” series creator Taylor Sheridan reveals in a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast. “That was in his contract. In my mind, that’s when his 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.”
As Sheridan tells it, Costner was “ready to go” by the end of Season 3, “but the network was so scared of not having Kevin be a part of it. 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 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.”
“Finally, Kevin hit a point where he’s like, ‘I gotta do my own thing,'” Sheridan explains. “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.”
Costner then helmed his own $100 million Western dream project, “Horizon: An American Saga,” which made just $38.7 million. In addition to starring in the project, Costner was also its director, producer, and co-writer.
Contract negotiations and on-set clashes also led to Kevin Costner’s exit from Yellowstone
Unfortunately, Kevin Costner’s departure from “Yellowstone” wasn’t quite as smooth as this interview makes it sound.
For starters, on-set tensions between Costner and co-star Wes Bentley have been widely reported, including the confirmation of a “work-related argument during an emotional and physically tough scene” between the two actors. Costner, who was also an executive producer on “Yellowstone,” reportedly told Bentley to ignore the script as written, and instead perform the scene the way Costner thought it should go. Bentley reportedly replied that he signed up to do a Sheridan show, not a Costner show.
Eyewitnesses say that Costner and Bentley “were in each other’s faces, pushing and shoving and just getting hot until they had to be separated.” Representatives for Bentley confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the actors’ issues were “discussed and resolved.”
As for the business side of things, THR reports that Costner’s list of demands for a full Season 5 return included a reduced shooting schedule, increased pay, and the right to script approval — which was a no-go for Sheridan, who wrote every episode of “Yellowstone.”
Costner himself admitted that he “tried to negotiate,” but “they offered me less money than previous seasons,” adding that “there were issues with the creative” as well.
