Kevin Costner’s ambition to create his own epic Western, “Horion,” led to the early conclusion of “Yellowstone.”
Kevin Costner was offered a huge payday to work on Yellowstone’s 5th season as well as two further seasons, but his rejection of the $24 check led to the ultimate demise of the series. The actor’s ongoing divorce trial has unearthed a number of details previously unknown about the saga of Costner’s tumultuous time with the Taylor Sheridan series, including just how prematurely it came to an end.
The main issues for Yellowstone seem to have come about thanks to a clash between Costner and Sheridan, with the former being fully prepared to walk away from his role as the head of the Dutton family even in the face of a huge pay offer. According to Deadline, Costner followed up on previous comments about his departure from the show and how it could end up leading to a court case, by claiming that Paramount were willing to offer him $24 million to reprise his role again in a 6th and 7th season of the flagship show.
However, at the moment even the second half of season 5 is not been able to complete filming thanks to the seeming unwillingness of Costner to put aside time to film his scenes, and then the arrival of the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. For that reason, the entire future of the series is in limbo, and it looks like there will be quite a wait until there are any movements on the saga of Yellowstone’s conclusion.
Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone Journey Had To End
While it is clear that Paramount really wanted to see Kevin Costner continue in his role as John Dutton in Yellowstone, the Dances with Wolves star has his own plans, and Yellowstone was clearly causing issues with them. Those plans revolve around Costner’s four-part Western epic, Horizon: An American Saga.
While working on Yellowstone had previously been a one-and-done affair for Costner, splitting up season 5 into two blocks, and potentially doing the same thing with future seasons, would require him to spend more time filming the popular show, and prevent him dedicating time to Horizon. This has clearly been a big stumbling block for any possibility of Costner continuing on in the role of Dutton, and the actor’s attempts to reduce his time working on Yellowstone appear to have led directly with his clash with creator Sheridan.
However, while this is bad news for Yellowstone fans, the franchise will continue on through the many spin-offs that have already aired and those now in development. These include 1883 and 1923, as well as the reported introduction of Matthew McConaughey in another expansion of the franchise. With franchise as a whole being one of the biggest hits on Paramount+, it is unlikely that Yellowstone is going to be moseying into the sunset just yet, even after the end of its flagship show.