“Kevin Costner Reveals What ‘Really Bothered’ Him About Leaving Yellowstone”

Former Yellowstone star Kevin Costner has expressed his frustration with how his departure from the show was handled and portrayed.

Costner, who played John Dutton on the Paramount+ series, left after the first part of the fifth and final season. His exit was largely attributed to his commitment to work on Horizon: An American Saga. However, Costner has recently shared his perspective, revealing that the scheduling conflict was exacerbated by the decision to split the final season into two parts. “Their big plan was to suddenly do eight episodes now and then eight more in the fall,” he explained. “I told them, ‘I have a contract to work on Horizon, and I have people and money already invested.’ There seemed to be a belief that I couldn’t manage both.”

Costner was particularly irked by the suggestion that he was only willing to work one week. “There’s been this narrative that I only wanted to work one week, which has been perpetuated in magazines,” he said. “What really bothered me was that neither Paramount nor 101 took the initiative to correct that misinformation. They never came to my defense or clarified that I was committed to doing three more seasons.”

In a separate interview, Costner elaborated on the scheduling issues, saying that while Horizon was scheduled around Yellowstone, the studio frequently changed the schedule. “Horizon was planned to fit between Yellowstone episodes, but they kept moving the schedule,” Costner noted. “I chose not to engage in conflicts over this, but if you know me, you’d understand that I made Yellowstone a top priority. Any suggestion otherwise is incorrect. I didn’t initiate these changes; they did, and they should have anticipated that I’d need to address these issues.”