“Yellowstone” returns tonight with new episodes, but its lead star, Kevin Costner, will not be there. Find out why the actor who plays John Dutton is not involved in Season 5, Part 2.
When Yellowstone returns to television screens on Nov. 12, fans will notice the absence of Kevin Costner, the lead star of Taylor Sheridan’s popular neo-Western drama. As a central figure in the series, viewers be curious about what happened to Costner and why he’s not in the show’s final episodes.
Since Yellowstone’s debut in 2018, Kevin Costner has portrayed John Dutton III, the patriarch of the Dutton family and owner of one of the largest cattle ranches in the U.S. The show follows Dutton and his family as they defend their land against a variety of threats, including land developers, a nearby Indian reservation, political rivals, and other adversaries.
Over the show’s five seasons on the Paramount Network, fans have seen Costner’s character become the Governor of Montana, experience serious health issues, navigate difficult family dynamics (especially with Beth and Jamie), and wage war against anyone threatening his ranch and his cowboys. Naturally, Costner and his character’s absence will be deeply felt by the cast.
Luke Grimes, who plays Costner’s on-screen son Kayce Dutton, recently opened up to People about what it was like not having Costner back on set to finish the series.
“Him not coming back felt like, ‘Okay, we’re going to have to land this plane now for real’,” Grimes said. “I think the patriarch leaving was always going to be part of the story. That’s always where it was headed is like, what do these kids do? What does this family do when their rock is gone?”
Although Grimes acknowledges the “drama” that led to Yellowstone’s return to filming, the actor admitted that he felt as though “it was always going to go that way.
