‘Yellowstone’ Creator Taylor Sheridan Has an Ending in Sight

The Yellowstone Season 4 finale is not the end of the hugely popular show, but co-creator Taylor Sheridan does have an idea of how the Dutton family saga will end. In a recent interview with the New York Times published ahead of the premiere of Yellowstone‘s first spin-off, Sheridan said he has a ballpark idea for how many seasons the Kevin Costner-starring show can run. The show wraps up its fourth season on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on Paramount Network.

When the Times asked Sheridan how long he wanted Yellowstone to continue, he said the show is building to an ending he has in his head. “I’m writing to that ending. There’s only so much hovering one can do before the story starts to lose its locomotion; you can’t put it in neutral just because it’s successful,” he said.

Sheridan, who co-created the series with executive producer John Linson, is not sure how long it will take him to get to the end, but don’t expect Yellowstone to be on for almost a decade. “It will go as many years as it takes for me to tell the story, but you’re not going to see nine seasons of it,” he told the Times. “No way.”

Yellowstone has grown beyond just one show and into a full-fledged franchise for Paramount. In December, the first episode of 1883 went live on Paramount+. The prequel series tracks John Dutton’s ancestors, played by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, as they move to Montana. A spin-off series titled , set on the famous Four Sixes Ranch in Texas, is also in development. More projects set in the West could be on the way since Sheridan, who also created The Mayor of Kingstown for Paramount+ and earned an Oscar nomination for writing the Western Hell or High Water, likes writing what he knows best.

“I don’t limit myself. I’m drawn to the sparseness of the West because that’s where I’ve spent most of my life,” he told the Times. “I lived in New York for a while. I enjoyed my time there, but I would be an outsider writing about it. I like being outdoors. I really like using the camera as a paintbrush, and I just find it’s so rare that you get to see the vastness of this nation. For the time being, that’s what fascinates me the most.”

Yellowstone Season 4 airs on Paramount Network Sundays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes of 1883 are released on Paramount+. There is also a two-part special ET Presents: Yellowstone Aftershow from Entertainment Tonight now available on Paramount+. The first three seasons of Yellowstone are only available to stream on Peacock.