Yellowstone star Kevin Costner isn’t happy about how John Dutton left Paramount series

Kevin Costner has offered his verdict on the return of Yellowstone, which saw his departure from the show.

Costner’s time on Taylor Sheridan’s hit series ended in controversy following reports the actor had quit as he wanted to make his Western franchise Horizon – An American Saga instead.

The Dances with Wolves Oscar winner, who played Montana ranch owner John Dutton in the series, has repeatedly combatted this, claiming he went to extreme lengths to ensure he could complete his work on the show.

Unfortunately for Yellowstone fans, Costner will not be in the second part of the show’s final season, which started earlier this week.

*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*

Cementing the actor’s departure from the show was the fact that Dutton was killed off in the latest episode and, while Costner was aware of this development, it seems he wasn’t in the know about certain details.

At the start of the latest episode, titled “Desire Is All You Need”, the character is found dead in the bathroom of the Montana governor’s mansion. It appears he suffered a gunshot wound to the head but it’s unclear how he sustained the fatal injury.

John’s son Jamie (Wes Bentley) – who is the Montana’s attorney general – then calls a press conference where he announces that his father died by suicide.

When asked what he thought about his character’s death, Costner said: “I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.

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“I’m going to be perfectly honest. I didn’t know it was actually airing last night. I didn’t realise yesterday was the thing.

He continued: “Sometimes I’m like just a passenger in my life. There’s a lot going on. And somebody said, you know, it played last night? And I said, ‘Hmm, OK’. So no, I found out about it this morning actually.”

Costner said the writers are “pretty smart people” and expressed hope that the claims Dutton’s death was suicide could be “a red herring”.

He continued: “Who knows? They’re very good. And they’ll figure that out.”

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The death of Dutton comes after Yellowstone director Christina Voros teased that Costner would play an “integral” role in the drama’s conclusion despite his exit being announced in June

Shortly after the news of his departure was confirmed, Costner said he “would love to go back” to the show, albeit “under the right circumstances.”

In an April interview with The Independent, Luke Grimes – who plays Kayce Dutton – said of Costner’s exit: “Whatever happened there is unfortunate if it’s changed anything about how the show was going to unfold. I know, [Costner] got busy with his movies that were like passion projects. At a certain point, you gotta do what you gotta do, man; you gotta do what you love.”

However, Costner has attributed his exit from the show to poor planning behind-the-scenes, which kept delaying production. The actor stated in June: “We lost an entire year at one point, and I thought, that can’t happen again.”