The Real Reason Kevin Costner Agreed To Play Yellowstone’s John Dutton

Kevin Costner might have left “Yellowstone” behind following the end of season 5A, but his shadow will always loom large over the popular Paramount series. As John Dutton III, head of the Dutton ranch, Costner very much defined the show, helping propel its success and bringing his significant experience with Westerns along with him. Costner knows what makes a Western succeed or fail, with the actor telling People:

“I’ve always believed a good Western isn’t always just rushing towards its gunfight. If you can create language and situations, and then you end up at a gunfight, I think it can be an amazing movie or TV show.”

In other words, Costner likes some actual acting alongside his action when it comes to Westerns, and what better way to flesh out characters than with a five-season series that paints a vivid and complex picture of life on a Montana ranch.

That’s exactly what he found in “Yellowstone,” which, since 2018, has told the story of John Dutton III and his family maintaining and protecting their ranch. The uber-popular neo-Western is written by co-creator Taylor Sheridan, who also happened to cast himself as horse trainer Travis Wheatley due to the fact that he’s somewhat of a rancher in real-life. As a result, while “Yellowstone” is undeniably soapy in many respects, there is an authenticity to the series, with Sheridan not only ensuring the horse riding itself was as realistic as possible, but also injecting the show with a real cowboy ethos that goes beyond watching Dutton and co do battle with rival families and groups.

That surely appealed to Costner, then. But there was more to getting the veteran star onboard than a true cowboy ethos and a protracted runtime.

Kevin Costner is in a tough situation following his “Yellowstone” exit. The first installment in his passion project, the “Horizon” film saga, bombed at the box office and it’s not looking good for the sequels. That might be playing into the actor’s apparent willingness to return to “Yellowstone,” with Costner talking to Entertainment Tonight about how “some things have a way of circling back.” That certainly seems much more positive than his comments from 2023, when Costner claimed he might have to go to court over his “Yellowstone” exit.

In the meantime, Taylor Sheridan has been in the unenviable position of having to wrap up “Yellowstone” season 5 without the show’s biggest star onboard. Should John Dutton survive season 5B, however, if the show creator were open to the idea of “circling back” to Costner, he might consider playing up the very thing that drew the star to the project in the first place.

When “Yellowstone” was in the casting phase, it seems that, beyond the network show’s unique potential to, as Costner put it, “create language and situations,” there was also an element of showcasing what many might consider the “real America.” That appealed to Costner’s sensibility, with the actor speaking at an Emmys event hosted by Deadline back in 2019, where he extolled the type of show that lifts the lid on what he sees as an underrepresented way of life.

“Yellowstone” is one of the biggest shows on TV, despite the fact that nobody you know watches it. Who is tuning into the trevails of the Dutton family? Well, dads, probably. In a more specific sense, the show seems designed to appeal to what you might call a more conservative audience, depicting the virtues of a hardworking life spent living off the land and defending family territory. It was partially this element that played into Kevin Costner’s decision to star in the series, too. As the actor explained during his Deadline event speech:

“The idea of seeing wide open spaces, when the land was almost like the Garden of Eden […] To know that places like this still exist in our country, adding drama against its backdrop, and actually understand in the realest terms that the meat that arrives on our table is still coming from somewhere. It’s coming from people that are getting up early in the morning and work really late. There’s a lot of America that seems like it’s behind a curtain, that way of life still exists. I am drawn to that and I don’t know many people that aren’t.”

So, there you have it. Just like every dad that surreptitiously propelled “Yellowstone” to mega popularity, Costner was apparently lured to the project in part due to its celebration of a way of life that, let’s be honest, isn’t given all that much exposure in Hollywood. As Costner went on to say, “We don’t see that enough,” before really solidifying his grumpy dad status by adding, “I don’t think that we get outside enough, if you will.”

In short, then, Costner wanted to star in “Yellowstone” because we don’t get outside enough, but also wants us to stay inside to watch a show about going outside… Regardless, now that “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1” hasn’t quite been the smash hit the actor was hoping for, we’ll see whether Costner decides it’s time to get outside again and make a return to “Yellowstone” — that is, if the show does indeed continue with a rumored sixth season that could star Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser.