At this point the stories regarding the lengths Marvel goes to to keep their projects a secret until release are notorious. However, I never expected a show like Yellowstone to use those methods of keeping secrets too. Well, they do, and ahead of the show’s premiere on the 2024 TV schedule, the Yellowstone cast broke down exactly how the storylines of Season 5’s final episodes were kept under wraps…even from the ensemble.
In preparation for the premiere of the final episodes of Yellowstone’s fifth season, a bunch of the cast sat down for a video that was posted on the show's YouTube (which you can see below) to talk about working on these highly anticipated stories. They also opened up about how secretive this production has been. Following a voiceover of a woman saying “there is a lot of security” surrounding the show this season, Jen Landon, who plays Teeter, said:
We get these redacted scripts, basically, everything is blacked out except for your lines.
Adding to that, Sarah Atwood actress Dawn Olivieri said pointed to Wendy Moniz – who plays Senator Lynelle Perry and was sitting next to her – and said:
I don't know what she did, she doesn't know what I did, we can't tell each other.
While that kind of script treatment is shocking, it might sound familiar to you, because it’s something Marvel does for its projects.
Famously, for example, they did it on Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, seeing as they served as a big conclusion to the MCU’s Infinity Saga. When it came to Endgame, director Joe Russo said Tom Holland wasn’t trusted with the script since he’s famously spoiled things in the past. Plus, Cassie Lang actress Emma Fuhrmann said she got a redacted script for the Avengers film that only showed her scenes. Heck, there were even fake scripts for Infinity War!
Considering Yellowstone is an extremely popular show on television, and there’s a lot of interest about how it will proceed without Kevin Costner playing John Dutton, the secrecy makes sense. However, this level of mysteriousness is also incredibly intense, and it changed the way the cast and crew had to work as director Christina Voros said:
It's a huge testament to the intrepidness of the crew, because you've learned how to do something a certain way for seven years, and all the sudden to have a new set of challenges that come from protecting the story for the sake of the audience.
So far, they have done that. We really don’t know much about what’s to come this season, other than part of it will take place in Texas and Costner’s John Dutton won’t be there. However, the show will be even better if we genuinely don’t know what’s about to happen.
Colby actor Denim Richards elaborated on that idea, saying that even the cast not knowing what’s coming will make the show better:
I think it kind of just adds to a little bit more to the uniqueness. The audience this year will really see real reactions, you know that really were not like rehearsed.
Wendy Moniz had a similar opinion, noting that this secrecy points to just how incredible this season is going to be, she said:
It speaks to how special this is going to be.
I believe that too. As was proven with Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War, keeping big secrets about the story can have massive payoffs. Both those movies and their major moments were incredible to experience without any knowledge about what was to come, and I'm certain I'll feel the same way about the upcoming episodes of Yellowstone.
We’ll get to find out all these secrets when Yellowstone premieres on the Paramount Network at 8 p.m. ET on November 10. In the meantime, you can go back and review the first four and a half seasons to try and figure out what’s coming next by streaming Taylor Sheridan’s Western with a Peacock subscription.
