Kevin Costner’s John Dutton has been the patriarch of the Dutton family since the beginning of Yellowstone. When it was announced that Costner would not be returning to finish out the story of the hit series, fans wanted to know what had happened to make him leave.
Things seemed to go south, and for a moment, Costner seemingly threatened a lawsuit, and then news came that the series was set to end after the second half of season 5. That all now seems to be in limbo again because Costner went to CinemaCon to talk about his new film, Horizon: An American Saga.
There, he told Entertainment Tonight, “I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to … I thought I was going to make seven [seasons] but right now we’re at five. So how it works out — I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe it will. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it.”
The “if” and the “comfortable” are doing a lot of work in Costner’s statement.
Does this mean that he might be coming back? That we will at least get the conclusion of this story? Or can we read into his statement further and hope for more of Yellowstone than we were originally promised? It could, also, mean that Costner is passing off the blame so that, if we don’t see any more of John Dutton, it isn’t his fault.
Personally, I am okay with Yellowstone ending to expand this universe in other shows, but also, there needs to be some kind of conclusion to the flagship series, and if that means that Costner is down to finish telling it, then I cannot wait to see what Costner and Taylor Sheridan have in store.
(featured image: Paramount+)
