This is what happened to Kevin Costner’s John Dutton

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After almost two years of asking what will happen to John Dutton III Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2, fans finally learned the fate of the Dutton family patriarch when the series returned on November 10, 2024. However, if you’re not up to date with the drama surrounding Kevin Costner’s character and where he is located YellowstoneIn the final season we tell exactly what happened behind the scenes of America’s favorite western.

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What happened to John Dutton Yellowstone?

The premiere of Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2 revealed that John Dutton was murdered after a fatal gunshot wound in the bathroom of the Montana governor’s mansion. Although viewers do not see Costner’s face in the scene, Yellowstone However, a bloodied body of an older man can be seen at the crime scene.

Beth immediately assumes that Jamie was involved, and flashbacks reveal that she is, at least partially, right. Viewers learn that after Jamie and lover Sarah talked about getting rid of John, she met with people who could not only kill the patriarch, but also make it look like a suicide.

Despite Jamie going all in on the suggestion, it becomes clear by the end of the episode that he didn’t really think Sarah would pick up the ball and run with it. When Sarah discovers her friend crying over his father’s death, Sarah reminds him that lions don’t die of old age, but in the mouths of younger lions… and that’s what happened to his father.

At the end of the episode, Beth convinces Kayce of Jamie’s guilt… and makes it clear that she plans to see their brother dead for his sin!

Johannes was written out Yellowstone‘s final season, season 5, part 2after news broke in May 2023 that Kevin Costner, who played the character since season 1, would not return to the series following a drama with Yellowstone‘s creator, Taylor Sheridan, with Matthew McConaughey set to replace him as the leader of a new Yellowstone series.

More: see photos of Yellowstone Season 5

The news came three months after Puck News reported that Costner and Sheridan had a “disagreement” over scheduling issues surrounding Costner’s film. Horizon: an American sagawhich Costner wanted to film around the same time Yellowstone Season 5, part 2 would be filmed. The film, which Costner directed and starred in, premiered in September 2024.

“Kevin Costner is famously opinionated and he has been feuding with Taylor Sheridan, the creator of this show, for months during the days of filming for the next part of the season,” Puck News reported at the time. The site added so much to the set Yellowstone felt that Costner had “a pretty big ego,” which “came to the fore Yellowstoneespecially recently, just like a passion project he’s wanted to do for a long time: directing this movie called Horizon, a western that he’s directing and starring in.

More: Inside the The Dutton family tree and how they are related

Sheridan broke his silence as Costner left Yellowstone in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023, calling the decision “disappointing.” “My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t changed,” Sheridan said. “His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful… and I’ve never had a problem with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work things out on the phone. But once lawyers get involved, people can stop talking to each other and saying things that aren’t true and trying to shift blame based on how the press or public seems to react. He took a lot of it on himself and I don’t know if anyone deserves this. His film seems to be a big priority for him and he wants to shift the focus. I really hope the movie is worth it – and that it’s a good movie.”

Costner, for his part, broke his silence on the drama during a child support hearing with his estranged wife, Christine Baumgartner, in September 2023, claiming that his decision to leave Yellowstone was part of a “long, hard-fought negotiation.” “We tried to negotiate, they offered me less money than previous seasons, there were problems with the creative side,” he said at the time.

Does John Dutton die? Yellowstone?

Kelly Reillywho plays Bet Duttonseemed to hint that John dies in Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2 in an interview with Entertainment weekly in October 2024 in which she revealed that Costner’s absence was part of the series’ ending. “The absence was part of the ending. That’s not something we had to turn around, that was already written into the tapestry of the story. It was always going to happen, it just happened a little differently,” she said.

Cole Hauser, who plays Rip Wheeler, also hinted at John’s death in an interview with Parade prior to the premiere of the series’ final season, calling John’s loss in Season 5, Part 2 a “huge loss”. There has been a tremendous loss. Being the man that he is, and also the husband and the friend that he is to (Beth), there’s just a lot of support and Rip is trying to do his best to help her,” Hauser said.

More: see Beth Reilly’s best burns of all time

Will John Dutton return? Yellowstone?

Although he was killed in the Season 5 Part 2 premiere, Costner shared Entertainment tonight in April 2024 that he would “love” to make a cameo appearance in the final season of Yellowstone if scheduling allows his character to be written off in flashbacks. “I would love to do it, but we haven’t been able to do it,” Costner said. “I thought I was going to make seven (seasons), but right now we’re at five. So how it turns out – I hope so – but they have a lot of different shows. Maybe. Maybe this will come back to me. If that’s the case and I feel really comfortable with it, then I’d love to do it.”

More: Meet the Yellowstone children of the cast in real life

While Costner doesn’t seem to be there Yellowstone‘s final season, director Christina Varos confirms The Hollywood Reporter that John is still a central part of Season 5, Part 2. “His presence is integral,” she said. She continued, “I think if I said more it would potentially jeopardize all the work that went into editing the script. He is the patriarch and his presence is an essential part of the story.”

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To see who the Yellowstone cast is married to and dating in the gallery below.