Casting News, Release Date, More

When Yellowstone aired its midseason finale back in January 2023, the future was looking ominous for the Dutton family on the fifth season of the Paramount Network mega-hit series. For a refresher, Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) had just thrown down the gauntlet against his sister Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and father John Dutton (Kevin Costner) in a move that would usher in an all-out war between the embittered family members. Will Jamie kill Beth? Or will John kill Jamie first? Those were the high-stakes questions sitting with viewers.

Then, the fate of TV’s biggest show changed course.

Behind the scenes, a scheduling dispute with Yellowstone star and patriarch Costner ushered in a months-long production delay on the second half of season five. The cast and crew had been planning to resume filming in March 2023 with an announced summer premiere date, but those dates came and went. Not until early May would the network announce that Yellowstone was going back into production, but that the remaining episodes, which would then launch in November 2023, marking an abrupt ending to the beloved neo-Western saga and flagship series. There were, however, new plans to continue the Dutton dynasty (which already counts spinoffs 1923 and 1883 in its stable) with a Yellowstone sequel series, widely reported to star Matthew McConaughey and debut in December 2023.

The announcement, however, came just days after the May 2 writers strike, which would ultimately usher in the July 13 SAG-AFTRA strike; the rare 2023 double strike effectively shutting down Hollywood productions and grinding U.S.-produced series — including Yellowstone — to a halt.

The status of the final episodes of Yellowstone were then locked in the barn for months — until the flagship series was given a November 2024 premiere date send-off, following the resolution of the strikes. Below, The Hollywood Reporter is keeping track of everything that develops about the series, co-created by Yellowstone-verse boss Taylor Sheridan, as it rides off into the night.

When Will the Final Episodes Air?

When this all began, we initially predicted: “Most likely, sometime in 2024.” And, we were right. On Nov. 2, Paramount Network went on to announce that the second half of the final season will air in November 2024. Production was set to resume in late spring 2024, which would be around now.

Before two of Hollywood’s biggest guilds, WGA and SAG-AFTRA, found themselves in a standoff with the studios, Yellowstone had not yet begun production. The scripts from creator Sheridan, who writes the entire series, were not yet complete. (April to October is when they typically shoot, with snowy Montana winters complicating filming on the heavily outdoor series.) Sheridan began working on the scripts once the writers strike resolved in September 2023. Now, scripts are written and filming is expected to get underway, but Yellowstone hasn’t announced an official start-of-production date.

Where Does the Cast Stand?

Months before the writers strike was called, reports of Costner wanting to exit the series sent a jolt through the Yellowstone-verse. How could TV’s biggest hit continue without its Oscar-winning lead?

In late March, president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios Chris McCarthy, spoke to those fears when he told The Hollywood Reporter that Yellowstone “wouldn’t be what it is today without Kevin and we hope that that stays for a long time to come.” Flash forward to May of 2023, when viewers were told that Costner would be staying on the series but that the series is ending. But the still-looming question remained: In what capacity will viewers see John Dutton? (McCarthy later told THR: “This Yellowstone chapter is closing sooner than we all wanted, but we feel good with where it’s going to end.”)

In late June, Sheridan sat down with THR for a rare cover story where he opened up about the scheduling clash, shedding light on the source of the delay: Costner wanted to focus on his own Western epic, a four-movie passion project titled Horizon that he’s co-writing, directing and starring in (and was just announced to be premiering at 2024 Cannes in May). “He and the network were arguing about when he could be done with Yellowstone. I said, ‘We can certainly work a schedule toward [his preferred exit date],’ which we did,” said the prolific TV hitmaker. “But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”

Cover story writer James Hibberd reported that there were ongoing discussions to try to convince Costner to film a few scenes to wrap his character. Sheridan hinted that John Dutton was never going to be around for the very end of the show in his original script. Still, the creator admitted, “I’m disappointed. It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.”

In early September during a divorce hearing from wife Christine Baumgartner, Costner went on the record for the first time about the dispute, saying he might take the show to court. Per reports, Costner claimed he’s owed $12 million for the second half of season five after Paramount “walked away” from negotiations. “We tried to negotiate, they offered me less money than previous seasons [and] there were issues with the creative,” he said.

As for whether or not that meant Sheridan would write Costner totally off the series — and deliver him an off-camera fate — media newsletter Puck reported that Sheridan did just that and wrote the post-strike back half of season five without John Dutton. Now, in April 2024, Costner has made his first public comments on his Yellowstone fate, implying that there’s still a chance Sheridan could revisit the script.

“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,” he told Entertainment Tonight while at CinemaCon promoting Horizon: An American Saga.

He added, “[Dutton] needs to be proactive in what happens and I’ve kind of had my own fantasy how [the character’s final arc] might be. But that’s Taylor’s thing. I said as much to him a while back. I had thoughts how it could happen, but we just have to see.”

The official cast, meanwhile, still has not been announced.