Yellowstone director went to great lengths to protect the final scripts

Yellowstone director Christina Voros revealed the secrecy surrounding it the last season goes all the way to the top – and she was the ‘gatekeeper’.

“Half the cast doesn’t know what’s happening,” Voros said The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday, November 5, she explains that she is a creator Taylor Sheridan decided to keep the last six scripts under lock and key.

Voros, who directed four of the six episodes for Part 2 of the farewell season, said: “It all came from protecting what Taylor and this cast and this family of creators have built over the years, and knowing how much anticipation there is was. for these scripts.”

She continued, “The energy around it was more about keeping it safe from the public than anything clandestine, and we went to great, great lengths.”

Instead of using a traditional script coordinator, Voros said she “took over” and made “edits for each cast member” to keep the plot private.

“Most of the cast only got the scenes they were in,” she said. “So for a lot of the cast, even some of our seven-year veterans, they’ll learn what happens when the show premieres.”

Voros noted that when they started shooting at the end of the season, it was just her and her first AD, Kether Abeleshad access to the scripts. Producers and cast members were kept in the dark until filming began.

Sheridan, who writes all the scripts, was part of Voros’ exclusive club from the start, as was the director Michael Friedman.

“The cast of the Duttons themselves are in the secret club,” Voros said, referring to the main actors. “But for the most part, people knew the scenes they were in.”

Yellowstone follows the Dutton family, led by patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his children, Beth (Kelly Reilly)Jamie(Wes Bentley) and Kayce (Luke Grimes).

When Costner, 69, announced it in June he didn’t come back for 5BVoros said it increased the team’s choice of privacy for the end of the potential series. (The first half of season 5 completed in January 2023.)

“It was actually a perfect storm. There is so much expectation. There was so much in the press about Kevin,” Voros said. “And when you make a show that has such a beloved following, everyone is going to have their own ideas about how it should end.”

The director called the final chapter “beautiful and surprising, unexpected and compelling,” partly because it is the end of an era. (Voros noted that she does not know if there will be a season 6 after rumors surfaced that Reilly and Cole Hauser could direct more episodes.)

“You’re dealing with a cast of actors who know their characters as well as Taylor does, and who have put a lifetime of work into building these roles,” Voros said. “The performance this year is simply exceptional.”

The cast’s ability to thrive without prying eyes was made possible by Voros’ determination to keep everything separate. That included treating each scene as a ‘closed set’.

“We had code words for things. There were scenes with a lot of extras where we shot a different version of the scene,” Voros recalled. “We’re so lucky to have so many great background artists come to the show and make the world real for us – but you don’t want 150 people in an arena going home and telling their families what they did that day. ”

To avoid a leak, she said, “There were some places where the cast learned variations on what their dialogue was to protect and distract from what people would think was happening.”

Voros compared the established rules to “COVID protocols” where if someone did not have access, they could not spread the details.

“It was never out of fear that someone in the family wouldn’t protect the story. It was more like if you know something, you might accidentally mention it,” the filmmaker explained. “We were just protecting the cast and crew from having that information, so we didn’t have to worry about whether or not they were keeping some things secret.”

When it comes to what fans will see when season 5 returns on Sunday, November 10, Voros wouldn’t say whether John will be taken to the “train station,” i.e. killed and buried by the Duttons. She teased that though John will be “integral”. in the final episodes.

“I think if I said anything more it might jeopardize all the work that went into editing the scripts!” Voros laughed. “But I think the reason why people wonder, ‘Isn’t he?’ Where is he, where isn’t he?’ is because he is the patriarch and his presence is an essential part of the story. John Dutton is still central.”

She added: “The beating heart of this season is family. Taylor’s writing always touches on these topics. … I think this season has come full circle in a lot of ways. It comes back to the family that started it all.”

Yellowstone 5B premieres on Paramount Network Sunday, November 10 at 8pm with an encore two hours later on CBS.