Kevin Costner Explains His Yellowstone Exit And Says He’ll ‘Probably Go To Court’ Over It

By now, if you’re a “Yellowstone” fan (Yellowstoner? Stonehead?), you’ve probably already made peace with the dramatic dissolution of the show that occurred over the past few months. This past May, star Kevin Costner, the original patriarch of the now-sprawling Taylor Sheridan-verse, revealed that he’d be leaving the flagship series. Just two days later, Paramount announced that season 5 would actually be the series’ last. It was unclear at the time exactly what motivated this sudden burst of dramatic decisions. But there was enough information out there to develop theories.

For starters, the shake-up came in the middle of a split season: Paramount and Sheridan decided to split season 5 into two chunks, one airing at the end of 2022 and the other to come this fall. It’s not an unusual move in the TV. Showrunners sometimes make the decision to buy back time to produce the rest of a season, and to insert a cliffhanger in the middle of a season to heighten tension for the series’ inevitable return. Fair enough, but that hadn’t happened before on “Yellowstone,” and didn’t seem to be in keeping with Sheridan’s ultra-industrious, just-get-it-done style.

Then again, between the creation of “Yellowstone” and the premiere of its fifth season, Paramount had greenlit five additional series from Sheridan, all of which he was writing and producing himself. Stressful! Maybe he needed a breather. But maybe, actually quite more likely, it had something to do with a reported falling out that occurred between the cowboy and the kingmaker: Costner and Sheridan. Now due to, of all things, comments Costner made in a recent divorce court hearing, we finally have a clear picture of what went down.