It’s official: Yellowstone is ending with season 5

Months ago, rumors started to swirl that Yellowstone — the incredibly popular Paramount Network drama about a Montana ranching family headed up by John Dutton (Kevin Costner) — was ending early, mostly because Costner wanted to work on his two-part western feature Horizon and could no longer commit the time necessary to film the series.

There was a lot of hemming and hawing after that. Paramount weakly denied that anything was wrong, and Costner’s lawyer shut down the rumors in the strongest terms…and yet here we are. Variety reports that Yellowstone will indeed end with season 5, which has currently aired one of two planned blocks of episodes. The show is scheduled to return to finish out its run in November.

Right after that, a new Yellowstone sequel show that continues the story of the Dutton family will debut on Paramount Network and Paramount+. We’ve long heard that Matthew McConaughey will star in that show, although Variety makes it sound like it’s not a done deal yet.

Paramount scrambles to get a Yellowstone sequel ready now that the original series is ending

Now come the statements from executives. “Yellowstone has been the cornerstone on which we have launched an entire universe of global hits – from 1883 to Tulsa King, and I am confident our Yellowstone sequel will be another big hit, thanks to the brilliant creative mind of Taylor Sheridan and our incredible casts who bring these shows to life,” said Chris McCarthy, president & CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios.

David Glasser, the CEO of 101 Studios, also weighed in: “The Dutton story continues, picking up where Yellowstone leaves off in another epic tale. We are thrilled to bring this new journey to audiences around the world.”

So those are the placid corporate lines, but I’m more interested in the dirt. No one mentions why the original show is ending or why they’re so keen on getting a sequel out the door, but given all the rumors we’ve heard over the past few months, I imagine it has something to do with Costner wanting out.

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