Between 2018 and 2024,Yellowstonewas one of the biggest and most successful serial dramas on television. But that wasn’t the original plan for the show sold to its lead star, Kevin Costner. In fact, it was originally pitched as a limited series with a narrower scope for the story of the Dutton family.
Costner, who ended up frontingYellowstone’s cast for almost all of its five-seasonrun, initially believed he was signing on for a one-year TV project. However, the show soon expanded into a multi-season drama, and continued to grow in scope along with its viewership, even spawning two prequel series and further upcoming spinoffs.
Many ofYellowstone’s best episodeswouldn’t have happened had co-creator and writer Taylor Sheridan not strayed from his initial plan for a limited series. Still, the neo-Western streaming behemoth becamea very different show from the one Costner agreed to star in back in 2017.
Yellowstone Was Originally Pitched To Kevin Costner As A “Long Movie”
It Would Have Been A Limited Series Made In The Style Of Costner’s Own Westerns
In a 2024 interview withPeople, Costner recalled howYellowstonehad first been described to him. Taylor Sheridan’s original vision for the show chimed with the legendary actor-director’s own sensibilities. As Costner put it:
“When it was first pitched to me by Taylor,it was one season and [like] a long movie, which [is] speaking my language… but ultimately, I think what happened was the studio didn’t want that. And because he’s such a prolific writer, he said, ‘I can do that. I can make a series that goes on'.”
Kevin Costner’s own Western moviestend to be sprawling epics that take their time telling stories with a combination of grace and grit. It’s easy to see why he was so taken with Sheridan’s idea for a slow-burning limited series about the Dutton ranch.
IfYellowstonewere Costner’s creation, he would likely have insisted on making the show this way, regardless of any studio demands. ButTaylor Sheridan probably wasn’t in a position to argue with studio executives at the time, having already been rejected by HBO when he brought them his idea for the series.
Kevin Costner Was On Board With Yellowstone Having More Than One Season
He Signed On To Star In 3 Seasons Of The Show & Stayed For 5
Ultimately, things have worked out better than Taylor Sheridan could possibly have imagined when he first shopped his pitch forYellowstonearound to various studios, and asked Kevin Costner to play its lead role. The show’s 53-episode run has made itone of the most successful neo-Westerns in history, and laid the basis for an entire TV universe.
As Costner has alluded to, Sheridan is capable of scripting dozens of TV episodes per year virtually by himself, so expandingYellowstoneinto a franchise with multiple shows and seasonswas never a problem for him. The show’s main writer doesn’t seem to have been too attached to the idea of making it a limited series.
By the time he was done playing John Dutton, the character had become one of the most iconic roles in Costner’s storied acting career.
Regardless of its expansion,Yellowstoneretained the cinematic visual style Sheridan had first envisioned for it. What’s more,Kevin Costner was very open to the series continuing for multiple seasons. In his words, he “stepped up,” and said, “I’ll do it for three seasons.”
WhenYellowstonebecame a huge small-screen hit,its main star was more than happy to carry on playing the show’s chief protagonist. “I ended up doing it for five [seasons],” he added. By the time he was done playing John Dutton, the character had become one of the most iconic roles in Costner’s storied acting career.
Taylor Sheridan’s Miniseries 1883 & Lawmen: Bass Reeves Give Us An Idea
We can envisage howYellowstonemight have played out if Taylor Sheridan had stuck with his original plan for a limited series by looking at single-season shows that are similar in tone, setting, and premise.Sheridan himself has been involved in producing multiple limited-series Westernsfor Paramount to run alongside his most famous show.
First, there’s theYellowstoneprequel1883, which tells the story of how the Dutton family journeyed to Montanaand founded their ranch 140 years before the events of the main series. In just 10 episodes, this beautifully shot, quietly powerful period drama starring Western acting great Sam Elliott ventures across several states and various storylines to reach its singular conclusion.
Then, the eight-episode,Taylor Sheridan-producedLawmen: Bass Reevesgives us a completely fresh take on life in the American South during the late 19th century, from the perspective of its real-life title character. The elegant approach of this miniseries to its historical subject matter gives us an idea of howYellowstone’s story could have been told in a shorter format.
Why Kevin Costner Left Yellowstone Midway Through Season 5
The Actor Couldn’t Wait Any Longer With Other Projects In The Pipeline
Kevin Costner was more than willing to stay on as John Dutton intoYellowstone’s fifth season, despite initially being led to believe that the show would be a limited series, and then signing on to play Dutton for just three seasons. However,his patience with its extended run was exhausted midway through season 5.
A lengthy break in shooting between the two parts of the season ledCostner to quitYellowstone, effectively killing off his character, John Dutton. In his interview withPeople, Costner described the situation in the following terms:
“There was a moment where that show for me stopped for 14 months… That’s the fact. I could have done a lot of things in that time, but I wasn’t aware that that was going to happen.”
Costner claimed that the 14-month delay to part 2 ofYellowstoneseason 5 would have prevented him from working on other projects if he’d continued to wait for production on the show to recommence.His departure was announced in May 2023, and Taylor Sheridan’s flagship neo-Western drama had to navigate its final six episodes without him.
It was the right time forYellowstoneto end in any case, but Costner perhaps didn’t go out in the way he or Sheridan would have liked. The actor is apparently game for a return to playing John Dutton, though, if the series is revived at some point in the future.
