Kevin Costner is at a point in his career where he can pretty much pick and choose what gigs fit him best, and fans gotten used to the all-American actor's passion for the western genre. He’s been a big name in Hollywood since the ‘80s, and his western thriller Let Him Go was a box office success last year despite being released to theaters during the pandemic, His Paramount Network series Yellowstone will deliver its fourth season over the summer, but it would seem Costner has another TV project on the horizon, so what could this mean for his future as John Dutton?
ABC has given the greenlight to a drama pilot called National Parks (formerly named ISB), according to Deadline. The semi-long-gestating project, which comes from Kevin Costner’s own production company Territory Pictures Entertainment and others, will follow crime-solving special service agents as they protect our national parks. That kind of storyline seems to be right on brand for Costner.
Even though National Parks is exactly the type of project that we know is up Kevin Costner's alley, he's likely taking a bit of a different role where this series is concerned. In addition to being an executive producer on the project, Costner also had a hand in writing it alongside Jon Baird and former Flash showrunner Aaron Helbing.
Kevin Costner is no stranger to heavy involvement in his projects, and has held the role of executive producer on a number of films and series even beyond starring in those productions. And let us not forget Costner is also an Oscar-winning director for his film Dances With Wolves, which he also starred in. That said, it’s unclear if Costner’s involvement will be strictly behind the scenes or if he will actually be starring in National Parks in either the pilot or any follow-up episodes if it gets ordered to series. If he is acting in the new project, though, what does that mean for his future on Yellowstone? That is a lot of hats to be wearing across two separate series and networks, even for an all-star like Costner…but it is possible!
Production for season 4 of Yellowstone has wrapped up, but there has been talk of filming in 2022, which would suggest there will be a 5th season of the show. If we are to assume a 5th season is happening, and we totally are since it's the biggest show on cable, this would mean production on the National Parks pilot would probably need to be mostly wrapped before the end of this summer.
Of course, we are also assuming Kevin Costner will still be starring in Yellowstone Season 5 in the scenario. Fans were left with the possibility of Costner’s character being killed off in the Season 3 finale, but since Costner has been seen on set of the fourth season, it is more than reasonable to believe he will make a near-to-full recovery on Season 4 and live on to cause havoc for grubby land pirates in future seasons.
This is a lot of speculation though, and it’s still very early in the game for the development of National Parks. Season 4 of Yellowstone set to release on the Paramount Network in June of this year. If you’re itching for some Yellowstone and can’t stand the wait, check out our list of similar shows and movies to watch in the meantime.
