Kevin Costner recently told the Daily Mail that he hasn’t given the “Yellowstone” series finale “any thoughts” since it aired on Dec. 15.
Costner, whose “Yellowstone” character John Dutton was killed off in the Season 5 Part 2 premiere, said of the finale, “I’m not thinking about [the ‘Yellowstone’ finale]. I don’t think I’ve given it any thoughts, we’ll just let it go.”
Back in November, Costner shared his reaction to Dutton’s death in an interview with SiriusXM’s “The Michael Smerconish Program.” The actor revealed at that time that he hadn’t yet seen the premiere of Season 5 Part 2, but did learn of his character’s fate the morning after the episode aired.
“I didn’t see it,” Costner said. “I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Costner recalled that earlier in the series’ run, there were “a couple times where I talked about possible endings for myself,” which did not include suicide. But he added that how the “Yellowstone” writers wrote his character out of the story is “their business.”
Costner departed from “Yellowstone” after Season 5 Part 1, which aired in the fall of 2022. He announced the news in a video posted on social media, saying, “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. It was something that really changed me. 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.”
The final episode of Taylor Sheridan’s Western drama, which aired on both Paramount Network and CMT, drew 11.4 million viewers on Dec. 15 alone, according to VideoAmp data released by Paramount. The company claims that makes finale the most-watched episode in series history.