Taylor Sheridan’s making a huge mistake with Yellowstone’s final season

Kevin Costner is looking to jump back into the ring for Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2, and if Taylor Sheridan doesn’t let him, it’ll be the wrong move.

With the tumultuous journey that has been Yellowstone’s final season, we’ve finally become witnesses to what happens when an unstoppable force (Kevin Costner) meets an immovable object (Taylor Sheridan).

After leading the Yellowstone cast for six years, Costner shocked everyone when he announced that he would not be returning to Yellowstone. While scheduling issues and failed pay negotiations were a key part of the problem, rumors of a feud between Costner and Yellowstone’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, quickly grew.

Now, having passed the eye of the storm involving production delays and industry strikes, Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 is finally set to begin production this spring and will bring Taylor Sheridan’s TV behemoth to an end, sans Costner. Or at least, that’s what everyone was prepared for. Now, a recent report has said that Kevin Costner is rallying to return as John Dutton for Yellowstone’s final episodes. But there’s just one small problem.

Too little, too late

Apparently, the scripts for the final Yellowstone episodes are complete. Filming is a stone’s throw away from commencing. The Costner train left the station, and now he wants to make a U-turn on a one-way track.

Even after implying that he would be willing to return in a cameo capacity, it might very well be too late to bring back Daddy Dutton. It’s down to Taylor Sheridan to decide whether the scripts will be rewritten to make room for Costner or whether to cut the cord on Yellowstone’s protagonist for good.

But for Sheridan to do the latter would be a big mistake. In a sea of irritating, baffling characters, John Dutton keeps the show grounded, and that’s saying something. (This is the guy who’s always killing people or vomiting up blood!) To remove the stoic, wise patriarch of the Dutton family this close to the endgame would be the biggest misstep.

Granted, this was never supposed to be Yellowstone’s endgame. Had the show continued, it might have run for several more seasons before coming to a graceful, timely end. But this is the card we’ve been dealt. So the question is now: do we want a little John Dutton or no John Dutton at all?

What do we want? John Dutton! When do we want him? Later!

Frankly, I’m all in. I want John Dutton to do what he does best: waxing patriotic and lyrical about absolute nonsense and standing proud while he surveys his ranch. I want it to be done at full capacity. I haven’t sat through five and a half seasons of this cowboy-glorifying machismo fever dream just to watch Kevin Costner appear as a Force ghost in the final episode.

But it’s also about more than just John Dutton himself. Kevin Costner is one of the last great movie stars. The man could very well be on the brink of reviving an entire genre, and he might be getting edged out of the foremost Western TV show in years. As dramatic and unbelievable as Yellowstone can be, it can’t be said that Costner isn’t excellent in that show.

Yellowstone’s early ending might not be as tragic as a full-out mid-season cancellation, but it’s certainly not ideal. These new scripts from Sheridan will have to cut out a multitude of arcs already in motion, wrap up the Dutton family legacy, and work around the absence of the show’s main character. All that in six or so episodes is a tricky task, but I know at least one of those problems can be solved!

No, I don’t think the early demise of Yellowstone is Taylor Sheridan’s fault. That comes from a whole bunch of elements at play, and it’s too late to do anything about it now. But it might not be too late to find a way to get Costner’s Dutton back in the game. At the end of the day, Yellowstone fans have waited a long time for this final half of the season. What’s a little longer if it means we get Costner back?

For more, check out our guides on the Yellowstone 2024 release date, 1923 Season 2, and 6666.