Yellowstone has re-started production in Montana and the final episodes now have an official premiere date.
The Paramount Network neo-Western drama series will return Nov. 10. The second half of season five will kick off at 8 p.m. An episode count has yet to be announced.
The news marks the beginning of the end for the Yellowstone flagship, which has become a pop culture and ratings phenomena, ranking as the most popular drama series on TV. In 2022, the production took an extended hiatus in the middle of filming its fifth season, which turned into a delay that lasted over a year amid wrangling over the busy schedules of showrunner Taylor Sheridan and star Kevin Costner.
Costner hasn’t boarded the new season and, given that episodes are already filming, it seems likely the show has somehow written out its lead — the Dutton family patriarch — and has moved on without him.
Yet the actor has been repeatedly making statements to the press about wanting to re-join the project — but only if he likes his character’s final arc.
“I loved the show,” Costner told People this week. “I liked the people on the show. I liked what it was about. I love that world … I’ve always felt that… It might be an interesting moment to come back and finish the mythology of this modern-day family. And if that happens, I would step into it if I agreed with how it was being done.
Costner also said he was disappointed that nobody from the production defended him amid media reports that he was personally holding up the show. “I read all the stories,” he said. “I was disappointed that nobody on their side … ever stepped up to defend what it was I actually did for them. There came a moment where I thought, ‘Wow, when is somebody going to say something about what I have done versus what I haven’t done?’”
Costner is currently making the rounds promoting Horizon: An American Saga, the first in a four-film Western epic that he personally helped finance and led to some of his scheduling conflict with Yellowstone. The film — which opens next week — seemingly has an uphill battle ahead, with its Rotten Tomatoes score only 43 percent “Fresh” and early box office tracking suggesting a very modest opening weekend.
Back in January, 2023, Yellowstone ended on a cliffhanger. Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) had just thrown down the gauntlet against his sister Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and father John Dutton (Costner) in a move that would usher in an all-out war between the embittered family members. The story prompted the questions: Will Jamie kill Beth? Or will John kill Jamie first?
Somehow, the show has to steer out of this, only apparently without Costner on board (at least as of yet).
In the meantime, two spinoffs are in the works. One is a direct Yellowstone sequel tentatively titled 2024 (which may or may not co-star several Yellowstone actors such as Reilly and Cole Hauser). There’s also a prequel, 1944, which will follow in the footsteps of 1883 and 1923. In addition, the second and final season of 1923 (the one that stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren) has started filming this month in Austin, Texas.
