Writing off a TV show’s character is a common practice when an actor can no longer film.
But Kevin Costner won’t let this happen to Yellowstone ‘s John Dutton, and he’s ready for war to protect his legacy!
We’ve been watching the drama around Yellowstone for a long time now. The conflict between the show’s creator Taylor Sheridan and the lead actor Kevin Costner has resulted in many things: a long hiatus in airing and production, the cast’s absence from their PaleyFest panel, and finally, the cancelation of the show.
The nature of the conflict is well-known, too: Costner doesn’t have enough time for both Yellowstone and his own movie, Horizon, and Sheridan doesn’t have enough patience to keep explaining that the show can’t be shot if the lead actor is not on the set.
After a long confrontation, this sad conclusion was all too obvious.
However, even in light of Yellowstone’s cancelation, the war between Sheridan and Costner is far from over, it seems: they keep trading blows.
Taylor Sheridan and the Paramount execs decided against giving Costner a courtesy heads-up that the show’s ending in November before announcing it publicly.
The actor learned it when the audience did, from the official statement. This was a dirty move, sure, but the answer that followed was no better.
Kevin Costner declared that he will not return for the shooting of Yellowstone’s final episodes. Like, at all.
The actor will keep undermining the finale’s production with his absence until he learns what ending Sheridan has planned for his character, John Dutton, and decides that it’s a fair and comfortable one.
To be honest, Costner’s concern here is understandable: we all remember how Patrick Dempsey from Grey’s Anatomy was treated by his writer, Shonda Rhimes.
Just like Sheridan and Costner, Dempsey and Rhimes had a big on-set conflict, and Shonda ended up killing his character in what’s referred to as an “F-you car accident.”
In a matter of one episode, a fan-favorite character was gone. Kevin Costner obviously hates the idea of his John Dutton having the same fate.
Reportedly, Taylor Sheridan has already drafted how the future episodes could play out without John Dutton, but this won’t cut it.
Yellowstone’s immense popularity and scale compel the show to end properly, and this means Sheridan will have to find middle ground with Costner — otherwise, the grand finale will have no John Dutton, and the fans will have both their heads.
