Kevin Costner makes his Yellowstone exit official

Kevin Costner isn’t returning to the Yellowstone ranch. While, at this point, we all kind of knew that Costner’s John Dutton III—the patriarch that spawned a million spinoffs—wouldn’t be returning for one last ride, it wasn’t made official until this week.

“I just wanted to reach out and let you know that after this long year-and-a-half of working on Horizon, and doing all the things that that’s required, and thinking about Yellowstone, that beloved series that I love, that I know you love—I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue season 5B or into the future,” Costner shared in a video posted on social media last night.

“It was something that really changed me,” he continued. “I loved it and I know you loved it. I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning. I love the relationships that I’ve been able to develop. And I’ll see you at the movies.”

While to the uninitiated, it may seem odd for a major actor to drop out of a show mid-season, this is hardly how Yellowstone season five can be quantified, even if it’s technically true. The first eight episodes of the season aired in 2022 (with the last premiering on January 1, 2023) and then… nothing. Due to the strikes and a series of other writing delays, it seemed unlikely that season 5B would happen at all, until Paramount went ahead and announced a November 10 premiere date yesterday, hours before Costner posted his own statement.

There’s also the little fact that Costner now has a massive, multi-part Western epic of his own to promote. Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 1—which Costner wrote, directed, and stars in—had its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and opens for the rest of the world on June 28. That’s not all Costner has on his plate right now. Horizon: An American Saga—Chapter 2, which the actor-director has already completed, follows in close succession this August. Then there’s the matters of Chapters 3 and 4, which are still in the pipeline. Costner and Yellowstone creator, Taylor Sheridan, have also been squabbling in the press for over a year now, so it seems like this move is probably best for everyone.

We’ll actually get to see what the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch looks like without its leader in a few months. And if it all goes up in flames, there will probably be another spinoff to fill the space.