Yellowstone‘s future is looking more clear now that we know for sure Kevin Costner won’t be returning, but it’s a disappointing future knowing that the main character won’t be back for the final episodes.
Yellowstone tracks the Dutton family, a family of ranchers who have been overseeing their family ranch for generations. John Dutton (Costner) is the latest family patriarch fighting to keep the ranch running and protect the land from modern capitalistic forces. The threat came home in Season 5 Part 1, which aired in 2022 on Paramount Network, when John and daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly) prepared to square off with son Jamie (Wes Bentley) after he went ahead with his efforts to remove John from the governorship, a “declaration of war,” as Beth called it. Now, that war will be waged without John. (Or could he perish because of it?)
Paramount announced in May 2023 that Yellowstone would end with Season 5. And on June 20, it announced that Part 2 will premiere on November 10, 2024, almost two years after Part 1 debuted on November 22, 2022 (the midseason finale was in January 2023). The 2023 announcement also came with details about a sequel series that would keep the mainstay show going, hopefully with some of the original cast of the flagship. Will that be billed Yellowstone Season 6, or will it get a new name entirely? Here’s what we know.
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Will there be a Yellowstone Season 6?
While the flagship’s story is not ending, the original series is. Yellowstone will end with Season 5 and will be followed by the sequel series that’s already been given a series order. It’s rumored to have Matthew McConaughey attached as the new star, and it is reportedly being called 2024. This follows the style of the Yellowstone prequels 1884 and 1923.
As reported by Variety in November 2023, 2024 could feature “new cast members and locations” but have “some crossover characters” from the original series.
What’s next for the cast of Yellowstone?
In an interview with Radio Times earlier this year, Reilly told fans not to put much weight on the Yellowstone rumors, downplaying talk of the spinoff while still confirming that “there are discussions” about continuing the franchise.
“I just care about finishing [Yellowstone] with as much care and as much passion and as much love as I can muster to put into it,” she said. “That’s what I care about. I’m sort of prepping for that now [and] that’s my tunnel vision thing that I care about most.”
“Don’t believe everything you read. It’s just nonsense,” she added, noting of the franchise’s future, “I don’t have an answer right now. But we’ll see.”
Yellowstone‘s June 20, 2024 announcement didn’t include an official cast list for Season 5 Part 2, but Costner is the only cast member so far to confirm their exit. For now, it’s safe to assume that most of the remaining Yellowstone cast, like Cole Hauser, Bentley, Luke Grimes, and Kelsey Asbille, are all currently in Montana filming the final season.
Costner’s next project is what contributed to his Yellowstone struggles in the first place. After Yellowstone production got delayed, Costner’s work schedule for his four-part film saga Horizon ended up becoming a conflict. He said in an interview on Today on June 17 that he wanted to make filming Yellowstone and Horizon in the same year work, but that became impossible.
Grimes, who plays youngest Dutton sibling Kacey, said in March that he’s ready for Yellowstone to end but left the door open for the sequel series.
“Nothing will ever be the same because of this show in all sorts of ways, good and bad,” he told People. “I will miss it terribly. I know that. I mean, I think I’m ready to know how it ends. I’m ready to tell the end of the story.”
The actor lives in Montana with his family and plans to keep that as home base for a while. Should the sequel series film in Montana like the original, he’d be nearby.
“My wife [Bianca Rodrigues Grimes] and I love it out there,” he said. “I think it’d be a great place to raise a family. I never know what the future holds. Who knows where the next thing will be, and how long I’ll have to be there. I’m always open to anything, but for the foreseeable future, I’ll be there. I really have fallen in love with it.”
