It’s been almost a year and a half since “Yellowstone” fans have been able to watch a new episode of Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western family drama. And in the time since, a lot of the blame for the delay has been heaped upon the show’s lead, Kevin Costner.
When the show returned for Season 5 in 2022, it was announced that the season would be split in two and labeled 5A and 5B. But despite the initial batch airing in November 2022, the second half still has yet to be filmed. Once Costner began production on his own Western opus “Horizon: An American Saga,” the prospect of him returning to finish the series became more and more tenuous and rumors began to circulate about the show’s fate. Speculation ranged from Matthew McConaughey potentially taking over as a new lead to Costner only being willing to commit to one week of shooting for the 5B section of what would now be the last season. However, in a recent interview with Deadline, Costner shared his side of the story.
“Well, I haven’t felt good about it the last year, what with the way they’ve talked about it. It wasn’t truthful,” Costner said of how representatives of the show have fed the rumor mill. “So now I’m talking about a little bit about what the real truth of it was. I made a contract for Seasons 5, 6, and 7. In February [2022], after a two- or three-month negotiation, they made another contract. They wanted to redo that one, and instead of Seasons 6 and 7, it was 5A and 5B, and maybe we’ll do 6. They weren’t able to make those. ‘Horizon’ was set in the middle, but ‘Yellowstone’ was first position. I fit [‘Horizon’] into the gaps. They just kept moving their gaps.”
Not only did he say that production on ‘Yellowstone’ couldn’t keep to a schedule, but he also claimed that, when the time came to shoot the second half of Season 5, scripts weren’t even ready.
“I left my movie to be on time for them for 5B,” said Costner. “I left exactly when they wanted, and it made it hard on me. It turns out they didn’t have the scripts for 5B. They needed four more days just to complete the first eight episodes [of 5A]. I left early to give them what they needed to have a complete eight, and I felt bad that the audience didn’t get 10. They didn’t have the scripts for anything else. So, what you read in the end was that I said, ‘Well, look, I’m doing my movie. If you want me to work a week because you want to kill me or whatever else, I can give you a week.’”
This is how, Costner said, producers for the show and people at the network were able to spin the story that he only wanted to work for one week. This didn’t sit well with Costner, who said, “Why don’t you stick up for me? I went and sold this thing for you. I was going to only do one season. I made it for three. I fulfilled three. So, I went from one to three, then I did a fourth one for them and they wanted to do three more. So, I made the contract to do that. They imploded. I had a contract to do 5, 6, and 7. I was contracted to do that. There’s nothing I could have done to get out of that, nor was I trying to just figure out how, when we started. When we finished, I wanted to do ‘Horizon.’ It all happened because they shut down one whole season, didn’t tell anybody and I didn’t work for 14 months.”
He said later in his interview with Deadline, “Paramount and 101 Studios mismanaged this. They had me for 5, 6, and 7. I agreed to do it. And then they steadily began changing their format.”
Despite this bad blood, Costner said he would still be willing to don his cowboy hat once again. It just has to be under the right conditions.
“I’m very open to coming back,” said Costner. “If they’ve got so many other things going on, maybe this circles back and it’s a really cool two seasons. Or end it, if the writing’s there and I’m happy with it. I’m open to that. But I took a beating over these guys not speaking up for me and allowing crazy stories to come out.”
