Picture this: You’re watching the show Yellowstone – specifically part two of season five – and wonder if, when and how much Kevin Costner will grumble and growl across your screen. If you want a guaranteed glimpse of our boy Kevy Costmeister, turn to Max and turn it on Horizon part 1because that’s what he was filming when they made this particular part Yellowstone episodes. It’s a good film, although it wears a very different kind of hat than you’re used to from John Dutton.

For those of you who are just getting started with everything Yellowstone v. Costner drama, here’s a look at the full story, or at least everything we know about the state of affairs with the Dutton family patriarch.

Yellowstone was famously written by a lonely man named Taylor Sheridan, who won’t accept help. The problem, of course, is that Sheridan is now the only writer on multiple series, and writing five billion television episodes a year takes time, no matter how good you are at riding. According to Costner, Sheridan did not have the finale when he was available for filming Yellowstone scripts ready, so they missed their precious Costner window.

According to Costner, he did. During a child support hearing in September 2023, reported by Peoplehe told the court that he had already changed his schedule for filming the first half of season five, noting, “That’s a big deal in this world.” Costner’s Horizon is a self-funded passion project worth $35 million, and Yellowstone has already been postponed – the first half of season five premiered in November 2022! Both projects employed many people who also had to live a life and keep to their schedules. And honestly, by the time this all came to light, relations between Team Costner and Team Sheridan had already soured, making further concessions unlikely.

Oh honey, this is what we’re going to eat. In February 2023, when it first emerged Yellowstone as we know it would end after season five, sources told us Term that Costner was only willing to film the final episodes for one week. Costner’s team took umbrage at this, as his trial attorney Marty Singer told Puck, “The idea that Kevin wanted to work on the second half of Yellowstone season five for just one week is an absolute lie.” That same issue of Puck noted that Costner’s longtime assistant and collaborator Glenn Kleczkowski had posted (and then deleted) heavy criticism of another Sheridan show a few months earlier, tulsa king, on Instagram: “Stick to westerns, bro. You don’t know shit about THIS life. Stay on your path, country boy. I’m actually ashamed of you as a writer and creator. Hooray boy!

Details continued to emerge that clearly attempted to portray Costner as a divo whose unreasonableness was stifling the production. He wanted to have a ‘veto’ over it Yellowstone scripts, he had a “moral death” clause in his contract that prevented them from killing off John Dutton in a way that Costner found personally embarrassing, and then he contracted COVID-19 during production, limiting his availability again.

Still, some hope remained, with Sheridan turning the drama into a reality Hollywood reporter profile in June 2023. “My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t changed,” he said, adding: “Once lawyers get involved, people can’t talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and trying to shift blame based on how the press or public seems to react.” He even gave Costner credit for the way he handled the bad press: “He took a lot of it on the chin and I don’t know if anyone deserves this.”

He has! The press trip for Horizon was one for the ages, with each Costner appearance offering us a new piece of wisdom from the Academy Award-winning movie star. It started on a positive note with the actor narrating it Entertainment tonight in April 2024 that he would seemingly be willing to return to the show. “I thought I was going to do seven seasons, but now we’re down to five,” he said. “So how it works out – I hope so – but they have a lot of different shows. Maybe. Maybe this will come back to me. If that’s the case and I feel really comfortable with it, then I’d love to do it.”

Later, in May, he gave up Term a little more detail in an expletive-laden interview full of dark gems like “Writing is really hard, I understand.” When asked if that was the case Horizon making him unavailable to finish more of them Yellowstonehe was clear: “That is not true. There were blocks of time where we didn’t get 10 episodes done. Basically, we started in April and May, and normally we continued until August. We would do ten. We didn’t even do ten in that time. I only worked 43 days. So that’s nonsense. That’s a lie. That’s not right.”

He also clarified the rumor that he only wanted to work for one week: “There were no scripts. I said, ‘Look, if you want to end this gracefully, the best I can do is give you a week. And if you can come up with a storyline…’ I usually work six or seven days per person, whatever that is. And they took that and a source on their end twisted that into, he only wants to work a whole season for a week. Do you think that’s me? I’ve never missed a day of work. I have never left before fulfilling my contractual obligations. I often stay as much as I can. In fact, I worked the nine days helping them in July when I started (Horizon) August 1. I worked for them one Saturday and one Sunday, and they still needed four days.”

We won’t know until the show premieres Sunday night. Although Costner appears in the trailer for upcoming episodes, it’s unclear whether this is recycled footage or new scenes or just moments on set where he happened to turn around and mumble things. Will he be a power ghost? A CGI monstrosity? A man we never see again after an off-screen death? We just have to tune in to find out.

As we know it, yes. While a renewed season six is ​​being negotiated, Kelly Reilly told the New York Times this week that as far as her character Beth Dutton is concerned, she is willing to move on and that she is also “very happy to see her disappear.” But don’t worry. The Taylor Sheridan universe is constantly expanding, so your future will have plenty of gray dudes on horses providing cultural commentary.