‘We miss him’: Yellowstone cast reacts to Kevin Costner’s absence in final season

Costner announced his exit from the Western drama in June amid reports he’d fallen out with series creator Taylor Sheridan

The cast of Yellowstone are opening up about Kevin Costner’s absence from the second part of the show’s final season.

The hit Paramount Plus drama returns on Sunday (November 10) for the ninth episode of its fifth season.

Lead actor Costner – who played ranch owner John Dutton – will not appear in the final six episodes of the series after exiting the show in June due to scheduling conflicts. His departure came amid reports that the Dancing With Wolves star had fallen out with Yellowstone showrunner Taylor Sheridan.

At the season five part two premiere in New York this week, Luke Grimes, who plays Kayce Dutton, said: “It’s hard to imagine the show without him. But that’s always where the show was headed. It was, can these kids do it without him?”

He continued: “So we all knew it was going to get there, we just didn’t know how or when, and clearly it was different than what we thought. But what it did do was ramp the show up to a 10 and now everything starts to unravel.”

The 40-year-old admitted he had been “a little disappointed” that the rest of the cast were not aware that Costner wouldn’t be returning to conclude the fifth season.

“I guess I was probably a little disappointed that we didn’t know that he wasn’t going to be, you know, back,” he began. “I think there might have been a better goodbye had we done it in some other way. It was, you know, it was more of a surprise than anything.”

Kelly Reilly, left, and Kevin Costner in a scene from ‘Yellowstone’ (Paramount Plus)

“But like I said, that’s above my pay grade. And our job is just show up and do what’s on the page and do it to the best of our ability,” Grimes said.

Meanwhile, Wes Bentley, who plays Jamie Dutton, added: “We miss him. He’s a huge part of the show and great guy to have around.”

In June, Costner told People he was “disappointed” by how the rumors surrounding his exit were handled by producers.

“I loved the show. I liked the people on the show. I liked what it was about. I love that world,” he said at the time.

In an April interview with The Independent, Grimes 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 [his new Horizon: An American Saga films]. At a certain point, you gotta do what you gotta do, man; you gotta do what you love.”

Ahead of episode nine’s release, Yellowstone director Christina Voros said Costner would play an “integral” role in the show’s ending despite his departure.

“John Dutton is still central,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “His presence is integral. I think to say any more than that would potentially compromise all the work that went into redacting the scripts!

“But I think the reason people are wondering, ‘Is he, isn’t he? Where is he, where is he not?’ is because he is the patriarch and his presence is an essential component to the story.”

While Yellowstone will be coming to an end, Sheridan isn’t done with Montana. He recently announced that Michelle Pfeiffer is set to lead the forthcoming Yellowstone sequel series, The Madison. The new series will follow a family of New Yorkers who relocate to the Madison River valley in central Montana.

Yellowstone airs weekly on Sundays on Paramount Plus at 8pm ET.