Kevin Costner Gives Candid Update on Yellowstone Premiere and His Character’s Future
Kevin Costner Opens Up About ‘Yellowstone’ Exit and His Character’s Fate
Kevin Costner is speaking candidly about how Yellowstone moved forward without him — and setting the record straight on his departure from the hit series.
During Season 5, Costner’s character, John Dutton, was initially portrayed as having died by suicide. However, the storyline later revealed it was actually a murder-for-hire plot. Surprisingly, Costner revealed he wasn’t even aware the episode had aired — and confirmed he didn’t appear in it at all.
“I’m going to be perfectly honest, I didn’t know it was actually airing last night,” Costner said in a recent interview. “That’s a swear-to-God moment. I’ve been seeing ads with my face all over the place, and I’m thinking, ‘Gee, I’m not in that one.’ I’m not in this season. But I didn’t realize yesterday was the thing.”
He added, “Sometimes I’m just a passenger in my life — there’s a lot going on. Someone said, ‘You know, it played last night?’ And I said, ‘Hmm, OK.’ So no, I found out about it this morning, actually.”
When asked about the fate of his character, Costner admitted he had no insight: “That’s their business.” Regarding the depiction of Dutton’s possible suicide, he remained skeptical: “I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.” When interviewer Michael Smerconish noted that Dutton didn’t seem like someone who would take his own life, Costner responded, “Well, they’re pretty smart people. Maybe it’s a red herring. Who knows? They’re very good. And they’ll figure that out.”
Costner has not appeared on Yellowstone since the first half of Season 5, which aired in 2022. Amid reports of behind-the-scenes tension and scheduling conflicts with creator Taylor Sheridan, Costner confirmed in June that he won’t be returning. However, he clarified that he never quit the show.
“I didn’t leave. I didn’t quit the show. OK?” he said in an Instagram video. “I had made a contract to do all three [seasons]. There was a contract in place… Within about an eight-month period, two more different kinds of contracts were being negotiated — not at my request, but at theirs — to try to do things.”
“I accommodated them on those extra two things. Things changed, and when they wanted to change it a third time, I had other obligations — I had 300 people waiting for me. I couldn’t help them anymore,” he said. “But I didn’t quit the show.”
