Television’s biggest drama is also the television industry’s biggest drama. Paramount Network’s hit Western Yellowstone should be on an easy ride into a record-ratings sunset, but instead it’s more of a bucking bronco that can’t be tamed. Season 5, which has been on hiatus since January 2023, will be the show’s final season, and while we always knew the end would be near, we weren’t expecting it this soon, and Paramount Network probably wasn’t either. Star Kevin Costner will not return for the final episodes of the series as the actor moves on to a new passion project of his own — a series of Western films — which became the impetus for the series ending. But there is some good news from the ranch: Yellowstone Season 5 is back on the horse and has begun production, and a release date for the final episodes has been announced.
There’s a lot of unfinished business to take care of before the flagship series signs off. Civil war has broken out among the Duttons, with Jamie (Wes Bentley) and Beth (Kelly Reilly) at each other’s throats, John (Costner) at risk of being impeached, and a devastating illness spreading through Montana wildlife and endangering the Duttons’ cattle.
Below, we’ll go through what we know about the second half of the final season, including the release date, cast information, and recaps of the first part of the season to set you up for what’s to come.
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 latest news
It’s official: Kevin Costner will not appear in Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2. Costner, who starred in the first four and a half seasons as John Dutton, posted a video on June 20 ruling out a return to the series for its final episodes. “I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue Season 5B or into the future,” Costner said in the video. The actor has been working on a series of Western films called Horizon: An American Saga.
For more on Costner’s announcement and his previous comments on returning to the series, see the “Will Kevin Costner return to Yellowstone?” section below.
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 release date
This certainly qualifies as a YEEHAW: Our favorite Western has a return date. The Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 premiere will be released on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 8/7c, Paramount Network announced on June 20. The last time we saw a new Yellowstone episode? January 1, 2023. Paramount Network also revealed that internationally, Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 will debut in Canada on Paramount+ on Nov. 10, in the U.K. on Nov. 11, and in Latin America, Brazil, and France at a later date.
Yellowstone Season 5 production
Yellowstone is finally back in business, after more than 17 months off the air. On May 21, Deadline reported that Yellowstone resumed production on Season 5 Part 2 in Montana. Let’s hope everyone remembers how to ride a horse.
Yellowstone is ending with Season 5
Yellowstone will end with Season 5, Paramount has announced. At the time of the announcement in early May 2023, the show’s final episodes were scheduled to premiere in November 2023, while a currently untitled sequel series was confirmed to be in the works and set to debut in December. However, the writers strike and the actors strike delayed both projects, and Season 5 will now return on Nov. 10, 2024.
The news that the show will be ending came after months of speculation surrounding the question of whether Kevin Costner would return for the remainder of Season 5 (and a report that claimed Costner would leave the show after Season 5, before the final season news was announced). Costner has since confirmed that he won’t be involved in the final episodes.
In an eye-opening interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023, Sheridan insisted that his intended ending was still in play even if Costner did not return to the series. “I’m disappointed,” Sheridan said in the Hollywood Reporter interview. “It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.”
“There are lots of places where a way of life that existed for 150 years is slamming against a new way of life, but the challenges are completely different,” Sheridan told THR. “There are a lot of places you can tell this story.”
One of those places Sheridan wanted to tell that story was on the 6666 ranch, the real-life North Texas ranch that became part of Yellowstone‘s story and the property that Sheridan now owns. However, production on 6666 is now on hold, because Sheridan is looking to spend extra time on it given that he’s personally witnessed its storied history.
Will Kevin Costner return to Yellowstone?
Kevin Costner has confirmed that his days in John Dutton’s cowboy hat are over. On June 20, Costner posted a video on social media announcing that he will not return to Yellowstone for its final episodes.
“Hi everyone,” Costner said in the video. “I just want to reach out and let you know that after this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all the things 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.”
The actor continued, “It was something that really changed me. I loved it. And I know you loved it. And I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning, and I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop, and I’ll see you at the movies.”
In an interview with GQ in May, Costner claimed that the reason he left Yellowstone was that delays in production interfered with his schedule and some filming contracts he had surrounding his Horizon Western films.
Costner essentially said he had tried to come up with an amicable solution, offering up his time to finish out his arc before he was committed to shoot Horizon: An American Saga. He said he was even willing to come in to film John Dutton’s death scene, if it needed to come to that. According to Costner, “I said, ‘Well, if you want to kill me, if you want to do something like that,’ I said, ‘I have a week before I start [shooting Horizon], I’ll do what you want to do.'” But Paramount and Sheridan didn’t take him up on his offer.
Costner also bemoaned how he was portrayed in the media, with some outlets saying he was only willing to give the show a week of his time, when he feels it was the delays in production and scripts that left him feeling stuck while his passion project waited in the wings, so he moved forward on Horizon.
“What am I supposed to do? I’m just not a dog that waits in a driveway not knowing when the person’s going to come home,” he said. “I want to know. And I also understood that their universe was really big, so I just decided not to sit in the driveway, but to be busy myself and be available when I could. It didn’t end up happening.”
Costner had previously indicated that he would be open to returning to the series under the right circumstances. On April 9, Costner was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight at CinemaCon, where he was promoting Horizon. “I’d like to be able to [return to Yellowstone] but we haven’t been able to,” he said. “I’ve loved making that series. I made five seasons of it, I thought I was going to make seven [seasons]. So how it works out — I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe it will. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it.”
Yellowstone on CBS
While Yellowstone is on hiatus, it’s still finding new fans. The Paramount Network series made its broadcast debut Sept. 17, 2023, on CBS, where it aired Sundays, starting from the beginning of Season 1. Season 2 began airing on Sunday, Oct. 29.
On Dec. 4, CBS announced it would continue to air Yellowstone in 2024, even though the writers and actors strikes had ended. Season 3 began its run on CBS with three episodes on Jan. 14 and concluded with a two-night finale event on Sunday, Jan. 28 and Monday, Jan. 29. Because CBS returned to regular programming after the Super Bowl on Feb. 11, it’s unclear whether, or when, the network will air Season 4 of Yellowstone. CBS will be airing another Sheridan series, Tulsa King, in the summer, and hasn’t announced plans to air Season 4 of Yellowstone in the summer or fall.
In its first week on CBS, Yellowstone drew 6.6 million viewers, much more than the 2.8 million who tuned into the series premiere when it debuted on Paramount Network back in 2018. (As the audience grew, episodes on Paramount Network peaked at almost 10 million viewers.)
Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 teaser
Paramount did release a teaser for the back half of the season, but it contained no new footage, since the new episodes hadn’t been filmed yet. Piper Perabo told TV Guide in mid-December 2022 that she had no idea what was coming after Episode 8.
Yellowstone Season 5 recaps
Need to catch up on the recent episodes? Read our full recaps and cast interviews for the latest Season 5 episodes.
