Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan is sharing where he stands with Kevin Costner as the western comes to an end.
The Paramount Network shocked many fans when it announced in May that the fifth season of the hit show—starring the actor as Montana cattle rancher John Dutton—will be its last. The news followed months of rumors that Costner was looking to depart the show. And as Sheridan admits, this wasn’t the way he saw John Dutton’s story coming to an end.
“My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered,” Sheridan told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview published June 21. “His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful.”
He added, “I’m disappointed. It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.”
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Costner is leaving to focus on his own Western project, a four-movie saga titled Horizon.
“My last conversation with Kevin was that he had this passion project he wanted to direct,” Sheridan told the outlet. “He and the network were arguing about when he could be done with Yellowstone. I said, ‘We can certainly work a schedule toward [his preferred exit date],’ which we did.”