Earlier this month, Deadline surprised everyone by saying that Yellowstone, the tremendously popular Paramount Network series that doesn’t seem to be watched by anyone under the age of 50, may end early, thanks to star Kevin Costner making things difficult on set.
Costner, who plays ranching family patriarch John Dutton, reportedly doesn’t want to spend more than a week on set to film the back half of the show’s fifth season so he could work on his own western epic Horizon. John Dutton is a hugely important character and one week on set wouldn’t be enough. Rather than accommodate Costner’s requests, Deadline says show creator Taylor Sheridan was considering just ending the series and continuing on with a prequel show starring Matthew McConaughey, on top of already-successful prequel shows like 1883 and 1923.
Since this report broke, Paramount put out a statement on the matter which didn’t really confirm or deny much:
We have no news to report. Kevin Costner is a big part of Yellowstone and we hope that’s the case for a long time to come. Thanks to the brilliant mind of Taylor Sheridan, we are always working on franchise expansions of this incredible world he has built. Matthew McConaughey is a phenomenal talent with whom we’d love to partner.
Kevin Costner’s lawyer calls Yellowstone rumors “an absolute lie”
Paramount released another statement to Puck, again not saying much: “As we previously stated, Kevin has been a key component of the success of our Yellowstone series, and we hope that continues from here on out.”
However, Costner’s lawyer Marty Singer went further with his own statement, outright denying the claim that Costner was trying to cut back his hours on the Yellowstone set:
The idea that Kevin was only willing to work one week on the second half of Season 5 of Yellowstone is an absolute lie. It’s ridiculous — and anyone suggesting it shouldn’t be believed for one second.
As everyone who knows anything about Kevin is well aware, he is incredibly passionate about the show and has always gone way above and beyond to ensure its success.
So far as entertainment publications go, Deadline is among the more reliable, which is why this story got traction in the first place. Now that Coster’s legal team is coming into it, will things calm down, or just escalate?
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h/t CNN
