For months, Kevin Costner has kept quiet about all that Yellowstone drama that’s being going down. Is he really leaving the show that gave his career a steroid shot? When on earth will they even finish filming Season 5? Much has been kept from the public, but on Friday, while giving testimony involving his high-profile divorce case, Costner was forced to open up about what exactly is happening with the biggest drama on linear cable.
As per Deadline, during the testimony, the attorney for Costner’s estranged wife Christine Baumgartner asked if he had been offered a sixth season of Yellowstone. Costner said it was “complicated,” saying they did “negotiate” and that he was offered $24 million to do Seasons 5, 6, and 7.
Alas, he said there were “issues about creative,” which likely means he and Taylor Sheridan, who writes every episode, were no longer seeing eye-to-eye. “I tried to break the logjam. They walked away.”
Costner has already been paid, though, for the fifth season, which likely doesn’t mean the full $24 million he would have been paid for three seasons. However, they’ve only filmed the first half of Season 5. The second half, or Season 5B, is still up-in-the-air, which has been even further delayed by the two-pronged strikes that have crippled Hollywood.
Scheduling seems to be the main factor contributing to this mess. Since Yellowstone re-raised his profile, he was able to get his Western epic Horizon off the ground. He was hoping to be able to do less Yellowstone so he could juggle both. But it was not to be.
“Somewhere along the line, they wanted to change things,” Costner said. “They wanted to do 5A and 5B; [it] affected Horizon. I was going to do my movie Horizon and leave that show, do my movie, then do B. A show I was only doing once a year I was now doing twice.”
Costner concluded that he will “probably go to court” over the Yellowstone fracas.
So, sorry, fans of Yellowstone, but not only will you have to wait even longer to see how the show concludes, but when Costner finally steps back on set, you might get a grumpier John Dutton III than you’re used to.
(Via Deadline)