The behind-the-scenes drama at Yellowstone has been going on for so long that I halfway expect discussions about Kevin Costner's possible return as John Dutton to continue well after the fifth season’s final episodes have already aired. It’s a wild situation for the Paramount Network drama to seemingly still not have finalized plans locked down regarding its central patriarch, and while Costner’s latest comments sound as promising as ever, it’s just giving me a giant headache at this point.
Costner appeared on NBC’s TODAY opposite Savannah Guthrie to talk about his current career path, and of course his Yellowstone future (or lack thereof) came up amidst talk about his upcoming western Horizon: An American Saga, and his plan to follow the critic-splitting epic with another three features. Will he be able to slip back into John Dutton’s cowboy ensemble before going all-in on production for the third Horizon film? Here’s what the Oscar-winning filmmaker had to say:
I’ve supported that thing and I’ve loved it. It’s been really important to me. I would love to go back under the right circumstances I think that all of us want. For me, it really needs to be the right circumstances. Saying there’s a chance, there’s always a chance. I love the thing. You’ve got to be really clear about that.
On the one hand, it'd be very easy to hear those words and react with all the positivity and optimism reality has to offer. That set of comments is 100% positive, with full support of Yellowstone as an entity, and without taking shots or laying blame at anyone else's feet.
Plus, he talks about "the right circumstances" as if there are a set of objectively proper guidelines that would result in Costner personally concluding John Dutton's story. He seems to be indicating that the story and script have to be locked down in a way that he'd be happy to return to, even if it means the character meeting his maker. And one can assume that scheduling issues are also in the mix, but I have zero trouble believing Costner could drop everything to travel to film in Montana for a week or two, and no disasters would need to be mitigated.
On the other hand, however, it's not super-hopeful to consider that Kevin Costner is having this "conversation," as it were, through interviews for Horizon instead of with co-creator Taylor Sheridan and producers. By all means, it's possible those talks are indeed happening behind closed doors without fans being the wiser, but it doesn't seem like that's the case.
One big and seemingly telling sign that John Dutton won't be around in the final batch of episodes is that filming for the back half of Season 5 started up in May, while Costner is set to continue the Horizon promotional campaign beyond its eventual release. Which doesn't exactly provide the actor much time to hop back on the horse for any kind of meaningful story arc to close things out.
To be sure, Costner says there's a world where he can film both his third Horizon movie as well as more Yellowstone, but it has to come down to the TV show's creative team to grease the wagon wheel, as it were.
There’s a chance to do both of them, but material has to be ready at certain times, and we weren’t able to do that.
"We weren't able" is the only time he speaks in the past tense in that respect, but does that means all attempts to make his return happen are exhausted? Probably not. But I'm exhausted with it enough for everyone.
Yellowstone episodes can be streamed in full with a Peacock subscription, while Horizon: An American Saga will hit the 2024 movie release schedule on Friday, June 28.
