Kevin Costner Shares His Reaction to John Dutton’s Fate on ‘Yellowstone’

Kevin Costner isn’t in a rush to watch his Yellowstone character John Dutton’s fate play out on TV. After Taylor Sheridan’s hit Paramount Network series returned for Season 5, Part 2 on Nov. 10 — sans the Oscar-winning actor — Costner weighed in on the show moving forward without him after he exited the series due to scheduling conflicts. Warning: This post contains major spoilers for Yellowstone Season 5.

“I’m going to be perfectly honest. I didn’t know it was actually airing last night,” Costner said during an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Michael Smerconish Program. “That’s a swear to god moment. I’ve been seeing ads with my face all over the place and I’m thinking, ‘Gee, I’m not in that one.’ But I didn’t realize yesterday was the thing.”

Yellowstone didn’t waste any time addressing Costner’s departure. At the top of the Season 5B premiere, John’s children find the rancher dead from a gunshot wound. Although it’s initially believed that he died by suicide, it’s later revealed that he was the target of a murder-for-hire scheme orchestrated by Sarah Atwood (by Dawn Olivieri), the girlfriend of John’s estranged son Jamie (Wes Bentley).

Costner admitted that he wasn’t sure what would happen to character, stating, “That’s their business.” When asked if he was ok with John Dutton’s fate, he said, “I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it. Well, they’re pretty smart people. Maybe it’s a red herring. Who knows? They’re very good. And they’ll figure that out.”

While John’s fate is still being discussed by fans, Yellowstone executive producer Christina Voros praised Sheridan for how he handled the situation. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Voros said “Taylor’s decision to begin this way was incredibly brave.”

“I think it is testament to his faith in the characters and the actors who embody them to go, ‘Let’s not make this about the incident. Let’s make this about how these human beings exist in the aftermath,’” Voros added. “That was more interesting to [Taylor] than the incident itself.”

Costner led Yellowstone for more than four seasons, first appearing in the role of John Dutton in 2018, before he exited the series amid his contract and schedule dispute with Paramount. Addressing his departure, Costner told The Michael Smerconish Program, “I didn’t leave. I didn’t quit the show…I had made a contract to do all three (seasons). There was a contract in place to do all three. And within about an eight-month period, two more different kind of contracts were being negotiated, not at my request, but at their request to try to do things.”

“I accommodated them on those extra two things that changed, things change, and finally when they wanted to change it a third time, because I had my obligations to do, I had 300 people waiting for me, I couldn’t help them anymore,” he continued. “I just simply couldn’t help them. But I didn’t quit the show.”

New episodes of Yellowstone air Sunday nights on Paramount Network.