As “Yellowstone” fans continue to speculate about Kevin Costner’s future on the hit Paramount series, his co-star Dawn Olivieri may have just fueled the drama.
When asked by the Daily Mail about the rumors of Costner, 68, leaving the show, Olivieri, 42, responded: “Sometimes we have to own the fact that nothing is forever, and impermanence is the single thing we can count on, and that life is like that.”
Costner and series co-creator Taylor Sheridan, 52, have allegedly butted heads behind the scenes, resulting in reports that the “Silverado” star may soon leave “Yellowstone.” Filming of the second half of Season 5 has reportedly been delayed in the meantime.
The Post has contacted reps for Costner, Sheridan and Paramount for comment.
A Paramount spokesperson told The Post in February, “We have no news to report. Kevin Costner is a big part of ‘Yellowstone,’ and we hope that’s the case for a long time to come.”
In the new interview, Olivieri reported that Sheridan will “write the rollercoaster” of storylines for Season 5, claiming the drama will shock fans.
“Are you writing so that everyone feels happy and they feel good about what you’ve just done to them? That’s not why we watch Taylor Sheridan things,” Olivieri told the outlet. “We watch it because we go, ‘Ooooh, I can’t believe that just happened. Ooooh, how could he do that?’ Right?”
She teased: “So however he writes this, it’s not going to be for the benefit of everyone at the home to just nicely go in their bed at night and put their head on the pillow and be like: ‘I am happy. That’s how he did it.’ That is never going to be the case. That’s not why he is where he is writing what he’s writing.”
Olivieri added that there is no changing Sheridan’s mind once he’s decided to ax a character — claiming “everyone,” including producers, tried to keep Olivieri’s “1883” character Claire Dutton alive on the “Yellowstone” prequel to no avail.
“I’ve already died once. I tried,” Olivieri told the Daily Mail about her “1883” exit. “Everyone tried to change his mind. I heard after the fact that the producers were like, ‘Don’t kill her. She’s really great. We love her character. She’s a strong addition — let’s take her farther on the train.’
“He was like: ‘No, I wrote her to die.’ I have succumbed to the death of that pen. It was the best for that story,” she explained.
Of course, Olivieri was rehired to portray Sarah Atwood on “Yellowstone,” a woman on a mission to bring down the fictional Dutton family.
Though the original series may evolve, Olivieri believes the award-winning franchise is not going anywhere anytime soon.
“It will never stop. We are going backwards, forwards, to the side [in time], and he is touching on something that affects everybody,” she said of Sheridan’s storytelling.
“… The names will change. Hotness factors will shift, and Matthew McConaugheys will appear. It will just be whatever it needs to be,” she added.
After months of speculation, Paramount recently confirmed that McConaughey, 53, will star in a “Yellowstone spinoff” after his brief break from acting.
“To go have some structure like, ‘I got a call time, I’ve got lines, I’ve got scenes, I’ve got a character.’ That sounds like a vacation right now to me,” the actor said this week on the podcast “Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard.”
“The last few years I had a really wonderful time getting rid of a lot of those filters that come with acting,” he added.
“Yellowstone” has sparked a slew of spinoffs, including the prequel “1923,” starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.