EXCLUSIVE: Is Kevin Costner going to DITCH final season of Yellowstone? Actor’s divorce docs hint he won’t film second half of the last season, stating he ‘doesn’t anticipate being on location for AT LEAST the rest of 2023’

Could Kevin Costner be set to walk away from Yellowstone before wrapping his character’s final episodes?

Following furious speculation about the end of the hit Western series – and reports of a sensational feud between himself and the show’s creator Taylor Sheridan – the actor has now stated in court documents that he ‘doesn’t anticipate being on location for at least the rest of 2023’, despite the show being slated to start filming on the second half of season five in August.

Earlier this year, it was confirmed that Yellowstone will end after the second half of the fifth season, with Costner, 68, finishing his run as rancher John Dutton in the hit Paramount series to focus on other projects.

However, while production on the second half of season five is due to start in a matter of months, according to Deadline, court documents submitted as part of Costner’s divorce proceedings against former spouse Christine Baumgartner, 49, suggest he won’t take part in filming.

Kevin Costner says he doesn’t intend to return to the set of Yellowstone for ‘the rest of 2023’

The documents – which contained explosive claims as Costner and his wife of 18 years, Christine, engage in a bitter divorce – revealed that he would be returning to California this month to be with his children.

Doubt has already been cast over whether the show will be able to begin filming again as a result of the writer’s strike, which has thrown many long-running Hollywood productions into a state of uncertainty.

It may be that Costner expects the strike to stretch on until the end of the year, thereby preventing him from filming any Yellowstone scenes, which were initially shot in Utah before production moved to Montana, however his statement in the court documents seems to make clear that he has no plans to travel away from California for any project until at least 2024.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Costner’s representatives for further comment.

Deadline reported in February that Costner wanted to shoot for only a week on the second half of season five, after he had already shortened his work on the first half.

The apparent reason was that the actor wanted to focus on his upcoming Western film franchise Horizon.