Kevin Costner Drops Surprising ‘Yellowstone’ Bomb After Announcing He’s Done With The Show

Last week, Kevin Costner gave Yellowstone fans the bad news that he won’t be returning to finish out the last half of season five, which is set to be the final season of the show. Now, Costner is doubling down on this by making a surprising revelation about the number of seasons of Yellowstone that he initially intended to do.

Costner Sounds Off

Costner, 69, has revealed that he only intended to play John Dutton for just one season on Yellowstone.

“Yellowstone was a great moment in my life,” Costner told Entertainment Tonight. “I remember reading it, and thinking I wanted to do this. Maybe do one season or just one long movie, and ended up doing five [seasons].”

Unfortunately for Costner, Yellowstone was an immediate hit when it premiered on the Paramount Network back in 2018.

“It was important for me to be able to do other things and, you know, try to make that work,” he continued. “But I just wasn’t able to make it work.”

Costner Praises Yellowstone As ‘Wonderful’

That being said, Costner claimed that he had a “wonderful” time making Yellowstone.

“I make movies and I’m a part of things that I think are gonna be really watchable,” he explained. “That’s what I want, to be for people to be surprised.”

“And Yellowstone burst onto the scene and it was a surprise, and it was wonderful and it was good… and other characters were jumping off the screen, and that’s what I want to be known for, you know,” Costner added.

Costner was likely referring in part to his four-part western series Horizon: An American Saga. The first movie is set to hit theaters on Friday and the second will be released later this summer. Meanwhile, the third film is currently in production, and Costner said that the process is “going well.”

“We’ve shot about 13 days of it, and we’re coming back in August to finish it off,” he stated. “I saw [Chapter 2] yesterday, and I’m really happy to be able to say that it’s just as good as 1, and maybe better.”

Related: Kevin Costner Takes ‘Major Gamble’ After Leaving ‘Yellowstone’

Costner Leaves Yellowstone

Fans of Yellowstone are devastated that Costner announced on Instagram that he is not finishing out the show.

“I just wanted to reach out and let you know that, after this long year-and-a-half of working on ‘Horizon’, and doing all the things that that’s required, and thinking about Yellowstone – that beloved series that I love, that I know you love – I just realized that I am not going to be able to continue season 5b, or into the future,” he said.

Check out his full comments on this in the video below.

Full Story: Kevin Costner Reveals His Future Plans For ‘Yellowstone’

Paramount Responds

A Paramount spokesperson later responded to this by saying, “Kevin has been a big part of Yellowstone’s success.”

“While we had hoped that we would continue working with him, unfortunately, we could not find a window that worked for him, all the other talent and our production needs in order to move forward together,” the spokesperson added. “We respect that Kevin has prioritized his new film series and we wish him the best.”

The final episodes of Yellowstone are airing in November of this year.

Though fans had been hoping that Costner would return to Yellowstone, his departure ultimately was not a huge surprise. Indeed, there had been rumors for years about tensions behind the scenes between Costner and the Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan. It wouldn’t be shocking to learn that they simply couldn’t overcome that.

While it’s sad to see Costner leave Yellowstone, he has to do what’s right for him in the end. We’re hoping that everything works out Costner and for Yellowstone!