“What’s the Deal with Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone Nature Show?

Whenever I hear Kevin Costner and Yellowstone mentioned in the same breath, my alarm bells go off. Normally, the Horizon director is out there criticizing the final season of Taylor Sheridan’s hit show or pretending he doesn’t care that Sheridan wrote him out. But this? I honestly don’t even know where to start. John Dutton is probably turning in his grave because Costner is back in Yellowstone—this time for a nature documentary series.

In the first teaser for the upcoming Fox Nation project, Yellowstone to Yosemite with Kevin Costner, the former Yellowstone star is seen mumbling to himself while trekking through the stunning wilderness. “I didn’t set out to change America,” he says, “but that’s what ended up happening.” Um, what? I have no clue what he means by that. I thought viewers would tune in to see Costner narrating shots of wildlife like snakes fighting or cows being herded, but instead, it looks like he’s just making a nature-themed vlog. Seriously, short of starting each episode with, “Hey guys, welcome to my channel,” this feels more like Costner’s personal YouTube series filmed in Yellowstone National Park.

Fox Nation describes the series as a historical “voyage.” According to the show’s logline, Costner will explore “the region’s rich Indigenous American legacy, the arrival of outsiders in 1850, and how John Muir became a passionate advocate for preserving wild places.” But that’s just the start. Costner will also dive into “how Theodore Roosevelt’s intervention led to the creation of a more organized National Park System, 150 National Forests, 5 National Parks, and the preservation of 230 million acres of land.” The three-part limited series—premiering February 8th—is a follow-up to his earlier project for Fox Nation, Yellowstone: One-Fifty. If Yellowstone to Yosemite is anything like his previous work, expect a Ken Burns–style documentary that mixes American history, wildlife, and plenty of random Costner monologues.

In the first episode of Yellowstone One-Fifty, Costner transitioned from classic nature documentary content—like wolves hunting or bears hibernating—to a personal fireside chat with the audience. No sweeping orchestral music, just Costner’s voice and the calming sound of a river flowing in the background. It was kind of like Jeff Bridges’s Sleeping Tapes podcast, where he whispers until you drift off to sleep. Yellowstone to Yosemite feels like Costner’s own version of that.

“Sometimes I think about the spirit of the great explorers,” Costner reflects. “What it takes to be the first to do something, to journey into the unknown…” Yeah, sure, Kevin.