Yellowstone star Kevin Costner has finally revealed exactly why he left the popular western series, but also hinted that he’s not ruling out a return.
Costner appeared on The Today Show to promote hiswestern epicHorizon: An American Saga. Naturally, though, Yellowstone came up. The actor frankly discussed why he left the show, saying it simply came down to wanting to be able to work more than the show allowed him to.
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“I did it for five years, and I wanted to work more than once a year,” Costner explained. “We lost an entire year at one point, and I thought, that can’t happen again. It was well over a year.
“I thought I have to be in a position to make the things. Material has to be ready at certain times, and we weren’t able to do that. After five years, I thought, I’m not going to do this. If we can get that, we can do that, and I’ll do it.”
Yellowstone has had a fairly consistent release schedule but did suffer some notable delays. The gap between Season 3’s finale and Season 4’s premiere, for instance, was well over a year. Meanwhile, filming forYellowstone Season 5 Part 2was delayed for almost a year due to the writer’s strike.
This does seem to back up some previous claims, too. The previous belief was that scheduling issues had led to afeud between Costner and Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, though that has never been confirmed.
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Still, Costner isn’t entirely giving up on the idea of a return to Yellowstone. He revealed he would be willing to return but didn’t really elaborate on what it would take.
“I’ve supported that thing, and I’ve loved it; it’s been really important to me,” Costner said. “I would love to go back under the right circumstances. I think that’s what all of us want. At this point, for me, it really needs to be the right circumstances.”
While you wait for more Yellowstone, you can check out our review ofHorizon: An American Sagaor read our Yellowstone guides covering theY brand,Train Station, and a ranking of all theYellowstone villains.
Christopher Baggett was a TV & Movies Writer on Dexerto’s US team and a comics expert, across DC Comics and Marvel. He also has bylines at ComicsBeat, Comic Book Resources, and The HomeWorld.
