Was ‘Yellowstone’s Downfall a Near-Brawl on Set Between Kevin Costner & Wes Bentley?

Alyssa Norwin October 8, 2025, 11:53 am

Wes Bentley and Kevin Costner in Yellowstone — Paramount+

For years, Yellowstone fans have wondered what actually caused Kevin Costner to leave the show ahead of the second half of its fifth and final season. Now, a new exposé reveals that the tipping point may have been a power struggle between Costner and Wes Bentley, another one of the Western’s leading men.

The Hollywood Reporter reported on October 8 that tensions boiled over between the men when Costner began pushing Bentley to film a scene the way he wanted, as opposed to how creator Taylor Sheridan wrote it, and Bentley refused.

“Kevin didn’t like that, and he lunged at him,” the outlet’s source, who was present for the alleged confrontation, shared. “No fists were thrown, but they were in each other’s faces, pushing and shoving and just getting hot until they had to be separated.” Production even briefly shut down after the incident.

A rep for Bentley confirmed that an altercation did take place. The rep referred to it as a “work related argument during an emotional and physically tough scene,” adding that it was “discussed and resolved.”

However, this all reportedly happened after seasons of Costner, who has been called “difficult” to work with in the past, rubbing his costars the wrong way on set. It appears that this alleged showdown may be what caused Yellowstone’s demise (the show ended after five seasons in 2024).

“The incident with Wes was the line in the sand. Everything was different after that,” another source told THR. “Everyone loved Wes and so that really made Taylor upset. Kevin and Taylor butted heads from there on out. It got very awkward.”

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Meanwhile, Costner began focusing his attention on a new project called Horizon, which he was having trouble circulating. “Nobody was jumping to buy [Costner’s] odyssey and after [Sheridan introduced] 1883, he wanted to prove everyone wrong,” a source explained to THR. “He was obsessively pursuing it and as a result his world on Yellowstone starts unravelling.”

When Costner’s demands to appear in the final season of Yellowstone were not met, it was agreed that his character would be killed off in the first episode of Season 5B. Meanwhile, Costner has insisted that he was not delivered the scripts for the final season in a timely manner that was conducive with his schedule for Horizon.