Yellowstone Creator Addresses Kevin Costner’s Exit From The Show

The man behind Landman, Lioness and 1883 recently appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast, where he opened up about Kevin’s involvement in his critically-acclaimed western TV show.

Kevin appeared on Yellowstone as ranch owner John Dutton from its 2018 premiere until he quit in 2023.

His character was shockingly killed off in the last ever episode, which aired in 2024.

During his interview with Bill Simmons, Taylor claimed that Kevin was actually “only supposed to be in the first three seasons” of Yellowstone.

“That was in his contract,” he explained. “In my mind, that’s when his youngest son takes over [on the show].”

He then suggested that the “network was so scared of not having Kevin be a part” of Yellowstone, “even though Kevin was ready” to leave, that his character ended up staying around a lot longer than intended.

The TV showrunner added that Kevin had wanted to go and work on other projects, but continued for another two seasons because Yellowstone ended up becoming “such a behemoth”.

“It was such a huge hit,” he added. “The notion of giving up a hit before it had run out of juice to squeeze is very foreign to a network.”

But, Taylor told the podcast, eventually the Oscar-winning star decided he needed to “go do [his] own thing”.

His exit from the drama prompted Taylor to end Yellowstone prematurely, and continue the story as the recently-released spin-off Dutton Ranch, revolving around Kevin’s character’s daughter, Beth.

Taylor had previously shot down rumours of a backstage falling out between him and Kevin at the time.

“[Kevin leaving] truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it,” he told the Hollywood Reporter in May 2023.

“My last conversation with Kevin was that he had this passion project he wanted to direct. 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.”

Despite this speculation about behind-the-scenes tension, the Oscar-nominated Hell Or High Water writer praised Kevin’s work on the show.

“His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful [and] I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone,” he insisted.

Kevin shed light on his decision to leave Yellowstone during his September 2023 divorce hearing.

While on the stand, the Waterworld actor shared that a “long, hard-fought negotiation” about splitting season five into two parts was behind his decision to leave.

He explained that he needed to focus on his own Western epic, the four-part movie series Horizon: An American Saga, which would have been impossible to do alongside Yellowstone’s filming schedule.

Kevin testified during the divorce court hearing that he wanted to return for the sixth season of Yellowstone, but negotiations fell apart.

“They offered me less money than previous seasons, there were issues with the creative,” he alleged.

Yellowstone and Dutton Ranch are both available to stream on Paramount+.