Around the time Kevin Costner dropped out ofYellowstone, it was announced that the bifurcated fifth season would be its final run of episodes. After all, co-creator Taylor Sheridan has so much going on, and there are so many other series in theYellowstoneuniverse. And so we all expected Season 5B to be the beginning of the end when it airs Nov. 10, but we were wrong. Apparently, deals are in the works to continueYellowstoneinto Season 6, still without Costner but with Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser returning. AsDeadlinereports:

“Sources stress that the deals are not done but the intention is forYellowstone‘s story to continue past Season 5B, which is expected to bid farewell to its original lead character, Kevin Costner’s John Dutton. (Costner has confirmed that he won’t appear in the upcoming episodes.) Meanwhile, Reilly and Hauser had been negotiating new deals for months, initially thought to be for a Yellowstone offshot. The franchise’s first contemporary spinoff,The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, is slated to follow Season 5B of the mothership series.”

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Yellowstone

Yellowstone stars Kevin Costner and centers on his character John Dutton. Dutton and his family live on a cattle ranch just a few hours away from Yellowstone National Park. The series chronicles the family’s struggle to defend their home from an Indian reservation and land developers. As if their life wasn’t complicated enough, the Duttons also have medical issues, political aspirations, and family secrets stacked against them.

We’re not sure ifThe Madisonwill intersect withYellowstone, but it’s looking more and more like Reilly and Hauser (along with others from the show) want to continue the franchise either way. The series follows the Dutton family through the many conflicts they encounter or initiate as a result of their gigantic cattle ranch. While things are seemingly coming to a head in Season 5, we may be in for a cliffhanger instead of closure.

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Yellowstone: The Dutton Family Tree, Explained

Discover how the Dutton family members relate to each other from Yellowstone through 1883 and 1923.

Can Yellowstone Survive Without Kevin Costner?

Kevin Costner has played the significant patriarch of the Dutton family ever since the first episode of Yellowstone premiered in June 2018, but announced in May 2023 that he would not appear in any further episodes. This means he won’t be in any of Season 5B, and surely won’t be in a possible Season 6. It remains to be seen ifYellowstonecan continue its tangled webs of drama and intrigue without his star power and magnetism. Perhaps the audience response to the Costner-less Season 5B will truly determine whether Season 6 is actually confirmed or not.

Costner himself is busy with a gigantic, complicated project of his own, with the filmmaker and star attempting to continue his epic film series,Horizon: An American Saga. The release ofChapter 1was a massive disappointment both critically and financially, which has reshaped the future of these films. However, its recent streaming release on Max has created a new fanbase and garnered more attention to the project.Chapter 2is already finished and will premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sep. 7, but its theatrical release date has been postponed for now due to the reactions to the first film. Who knows, maybe Costner will need to return toYellowstonefor some quick cash to finance moreHorizon.

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You can follow all the drama about Kevin Costner andYellowstonein our video below:

Kevin Costner in Yellowstone and on a horse

Yellowstone