Kevin Costner’s future with Yellowstone remains hazy, but his next project seems to be coming together nicely — and now it has a release date.
Costner’s upcoming film Horizon: A Western Saga is set to hit theaters next year, according to a Thursday, October 5, report from Variety. Chapter 1 will debut on June 28, 2024, while Chapter 2 will premiere on August 16, 2024.
Costner, 68, originally planned to release Horizon — which he’s said has a run time of 11 hours — in four parts. It’s not yet clear whether these release dates mean that the saga will now consist of only two films.
In addition to directing Horizon, Costner stars in the project alongside Sienna Miller, Luke Wilson, Jena Malone, Giovanni Ribisi and more. The film’s cast also includes several of his fellow Yellowstone alums: Will Patton, Danny Huston and Dalton Baker.
Costner has been trying to make Horizon — an epic depicting the expansion of the American West — since the late 1980s and finally started production in early 2022. According to Yellowstone cocreator Taylor Sheridan, Horizon is the reason Costner wanted out of his role as John Dutton on the Paramount Network drama.
“He and the network were arguing about when he could be done with Yellowstone. I said, ‘We can certainly work a schedule toward [his preferred exit date],’ which we did,” Sheridan, 53, told The Hollywood Reporter in June. “His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”
The second half of Yellowstone’s fifth season was supposed to have aired this summer, but production was delayed amid rumors that Costner wanted to exit the show. Paramount confirmed in May that Yellowstone will end for good after the second half of season 5 debuts, but it remains unclear whether Costner will be back for those final episodes.
In court documents related to his divorce from ex-wife Christine Baumgartner, Costner claimed he “concluded his work” on Yellowstone last year. The first half of season 5 ended in January on a cliffhanger, but according to docs filed by Costner’s legal team in September, he “is not involved in any future episodes” of the show.
Sheridan, meanwhile, previously implied he had a plan to wrap up Costner’s character arc. “It truncates the closure of his character,” he told THR. “It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.”