In the five months since all those Yellowstone rumors first lit up the pop culture zeitgeist, fans have been privy to a lot of fairly negative reports, with the biggest of them all obviously being that the current king of all TV dramas is officially ending after Season 5, but with the positive caveat of a sequel series coming to fill the void. Granted, the ongoing WGA writers strike (and now the SAG-AFTRA strike) have halted all progress on that front, but one star has voiced the desire for the Paramount Network saga to continue on for years to come, and I think it’s fairly safe to assume that country hitmaker Lainey Wilson would jump at the chance to continue Abby’s story in an upcoming Yellowstone series, despite having yet to meet star Kevin Costner.
Wilson is continuing to thrive on TV even in the midst of Yellowstone’s latest extended hiatus, as she joined Elle King and Dierks Bentley in co-hosting the filmed-for-TV concert CMA Fest for ABC. And her day job certainly played into her scripted role, with Abby also being a crowd-wooing singer and guitar player, and one who just so happens to play Wilson’s own songs such as “Watermelon Moonshine.” When talking to Fox News, the CMA winner expressed her desire for Yellowstone’s long shelf life, while also championing its influence on the country music scene. In her words:
If it was up to me, it’d go on and on and on and on and on. I love me some Yellowstone. I love what they’ve done for the Western way of life. I love what they’ve done for country music. I think it was really perfect timing for me and what I do, too, because it’s kind of like they might make country music cool again.
To be sure, Lainey Wilson quickly clarified that she didn’t mean to imply that country music isn’t cool generally speaking, but more the idea of it moving back up to being a pop culture staple, as well as having a steady presence on social media. Although she definitely does still have a point, since Yellowstone has absolutely driven up interest in ranch life and cowboy aesthetics, on top of putting a sizable focus on the applicable music genre. It most often happens through late-episode montages where everyone looks stressed out and ragged, but Wilson provided a way to bring more live performances to episodes. Even if it’s just to make Ian Bohen’s Ryan look as smitten as humanly possible, it’s worth it.
But even if she may want Yellowstone to continue churning out episodes ad nauseum, the flagship series is definitely wrapping things up for John Dutton (and maybe others) at whatever point Season 5 can return to filming. Only then will we know if and how the sequel series will take the baton and continue with new narrative paths, reportedly with Matthew McConaughey as a lead. Wilson herself doesn’t seem to know just yet what’ll happen, and doesn’t even sound convinced that Abby will be back.
When it comes to how it’s going end, I don’t know. I need to call Taylor Sheridan. Fingers crossed that before it does end, hopefully I get to be back on the show again. I mean, the good news is they haven’t took me to the train station yet.
I can’t imagine Abby and Ryan’s relationship could reach any kind of point when she would necessarily be taken out to the train station, unless she’s some kind of devious long-con plant, so I feel she’ll still be living, breathing, and crooning when Season 5 is over and done with. But with Kevin Costner leaving the series, John Dutton’s fate is all but sealed, though Wilson also says she’s clueless on where that story is going.
That’s when she dropped the rather shocking detail that she “hadn’t even [gotten] to meet Kevin Costner even on the set,” while saying that she’s heard that he’s “just an incredible dude” from others. Granted, Wilson’s Abby didn’t appear in all of the Season 5 installments that aired so far, and her romantic story with Ryan doesn’t exactly require input from John, but it’s still weird to think that any recurring stars could film multiple episodes without ever crossing paths with the main star. But that possibly also speaks to the rumors that Costner pushed to film as little as possible for Season 5 so that he could devote his time and attention to his upcoming film saga Horizon, which he is directing all four parts of, and has poured a lot of his own personal finances into.
So maybe if Lainey Wilson doesn’t find a way to convince Taylor Sheridan to keep Abby’s story going in this universe beyond Season 5, maybe she can aim to join whatever Horizon entries haven’t been filmed yet. Which would probably require her actually talking to Costner first.
Yellowstone fans can stream all available episodes with a Peacock subscription while waiting to see what happens next with Abby and Ryan, and you know, those other characters, whoever they are. I may have added a little too much watermelon moonshine to my watermelon moonshine.