Kevin Costner Reacts to How ‘Yellowstone’ Killed Him

Kevin Costner shared his thoughts along the way Yellowstone completed his departure from the show in the season 5B premiere — and he has some notes.

The Oscar winner, 69, weighed in on the Paramount Network drama’s return during an interview Monday, Nov. 11, on SiriusXM’s The Michael Smerconish Program. Before responding to how his character, John Dutton, died on the Sunday, November 10, episode, Costner claimed he didn’t even know the show was back.

“I’m going to be completely honest. I didn’t know it actually aired last night,” he said. ‘That is a moment to swear to God. I’ve seen ads with my face everywhere and I think, ‘Gosh, that’s not me.’ But I didn’t know yesterday was the thing.’

Costner went on to note that he hasn’t seen the episode, but he knows (kinda) how the series co-created. Taylor Sheridan wrote him off.

“I heard it’s suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush out and check it out,” he said.

However, as viewers know, that’s not exactly what happened. Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) hired a hitman to take John because she thought Jamie Dutton was (Wes Bentley) wanted, saying the assassin only made it Look like suicide, because he thought that would be cleaner than staging a heart attack. While researchers seemed to believe it, Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Kayce (Lucas Grimes) immediately smelled a rat and suspected that their father – who had no history of mental health problems or addiction – had been murdered.

Despite not having seen the episode, Costner felt that suicide was not the whole story and noted that he has confidence in Sheridan’s ability to craft a more complex ending for his character.

“They’re pretty smart people,” he said. “Maybe it’s a red herring. Who knows? They are very good. And they are going to find out.”

Earlier this week, director Christina Voroswho helmed the Season 5B premiere confirmed that Sheridan, 54, was the person who decided John Dutton’s fate.

“It’s Taylor’s world. He made a brave decision.” she said The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Sunday. “I think Taylor’s decision to start this way was incredibly courageous. I think it’s a testament to his trust in the characters and the actors who embody them to say, ‘Let’s not make this about the incident. Let’s make this about how these human beings exist in the aftermath.” That was more interesting to Taylor than the incident itself.”

Costner confirmed his departure Yellowstone in June after more than a year of speculation about whether he would be back for the show’s final run of episodes. The drama began in early 2023 when rumors swirled that he and Sheridan were at odds over filming schedules for season 5B, which was originally set to premiere in November 2023.

Both parties denied bad blood at the time Yellowstone was further delayed by last year’s twin WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Meanwhile, Costner turned his focus to his film series Horizon: an American sagathe first part of which appeared in cinemas in June. Chapter 2 was originally set to premiere in August, but the release date was then postponed indefinitely Chapter 1‘s poor performance at the box office.

Related: Kevin Costner Confirms He Won’t Return to ‘Yellowstone’

Kevin Costner is officially done with Yellowstone. “I just want you to know that after this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all the things that it takes, and thinking about Yellowstone, that beloved series that I love and that I know you love,” Costner said in (…)

In May, Costner finally addressed the rumors about why he left the show, claiming that Sheridan had not written any scripts for 5B when he was called back to filming.

“I gave them 25 of my days for this B thing in November and December (2022). What they called 5B. The entire month of March (2023),” he said Term at the time. “I didn’t shoot 5B. There was no script. And then it imploded.”

Sheridan has not publicly addressed Costner’s claims.

Yellowstone airs on Paramount Network Sundays at 8pm ET.