‘Yellowstone’: Taylor Sheridan & Kevin Costner Wanted John Dutton Written Out Much Sooner

Kelli Boyle June 30, 2026, 2:20 pm

Kevin Costner as John Dutton in 'Yellowstone' — Paramount Network/Courtesy Everett Collection

Finally, some context for the cause of Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan‘s creative split from Sheridan himself. According to the Yellowstone creator, he and Costner agreed from the very beginning of the series that John Dutton would only be in three seasons of the show. Network pressure pushed Costner to stick around for two more than he originally agreed to.

“Kevin was only supposed to be in the first three seasons,” Sheridan revealed on the June 28 episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast. “That was in his contract. In my mind, that’s when his youngest son takes over, and then we have to watch [them] lose that ranch, or not lose the ranch, whatever the case is going to be.”

The scribe said that “[Costner] was ready to go” when Season 3 ended, “but the network was so scared of not having Kevin be a part of it.”

The Yellowstone Season 3 finale featured a string of assassination attempts against John, Beth (Kelly Reilly), and Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), leaving the family’s fate up in the air. The image of Costner’s character injured on the side of a road (above) is a famous scene from that finale. Sheridan didn’t say if John was supposed to die in this finale in his original conception for the show, nor did he note that this story was the original plan for that finale overall. But if that were to be John’s sunset, it would’ve been a memorable way to go. John was killed off in the Season 5B premiere, the most-watched episode of the series, when including many simulcasts (the series finale is the most-watched episode ever otherwise).

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“He had other things he wanted to do, but he stayed on for another two seasons, and that was just because the show was such behemoth,” Sheridan went on. “It was such a huge hit that the notion of giving up a hit before it had run out of juice to squeeze is very foreign to a network. There was even pressure from some of the cable companies wanting to put it in their deals, that they were going to get an X number of seasons of Yellowstone to re-up what this cable company is. That’s the power of a really big hit show.”

“Finally, Kevin hit a point where he’s like, ‘I gotta do my own thing,'” Sheridan said. “We had originally conceived it together that it was three seasons, and then the baton is handed. I thought it wouldn’t have been better for the show because we had tried to tread water for a bit there. I think it was pretty evident.”

As previously reported, Costner had creative differences with how Yellowstone was playing out in his final seasons. To stay on the show for Season 5B (the final season), he wanted a changed schedule, a pay increase, and more creative control. Additionally, there were reports of conflict with costar Wes Bentley that were resolved.

The Yellowstone spinoff, Dutton Ranch, airs its Season 1 finale on July 3 and has been renewed for Season 2. Sheridan is an executive producer, in addition to executive producing the Marshals spinoff on CBS, filming now.

Dutton Ranch, Season 1 Finale, Friday, July 3, 8/7c, Paramount Network, Streaming on Paramount+

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