Yellowstone’ Finale: What We Know About the Final Episodes
After delays due to scheduling conflicts with departing star Kevin Costner and the 2023 writers and actors strike, the second half of season five finally returned in November.
When Yellowstone aired its mid-season finale in January 2023, the future didn’t look too bright for the Dutton family in the fifth season of the hit Paramount Network series. To review, Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) had just thrown down the gauntlet against his sister Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and father John Dutton (Kevin Costner) in a move that would set off an all-out war between the bitter family members. Would Jamie kill Beth? Or would John kill Jamie first? Those were the big questions viewers were asking.
Then, the fate of television’s biggest show took a turn for the worse.
Behind the scenes, a scheduling dispute with Yellowstone star and showrunner Costner led to a months-long production delay in the second half of the fifth season. The cast and crew had planned to resume filming in March 2023 with a summer premiere date announced, but those dates have come and gone. It wasn’t until early May 2023 that the network announced that Yellowstone would resume production, but the remaining episodes — then set to premiere in November 2023 — would mark an abrupt end to the beloved and pivotal new Western series. However, there were new plans to continue the Dutton dynasty (which already included the 1923 and 1883 spinoffs in its franchise) with a Yellowstone sequel series, which was widely reported at the time to star Matthew McConaughey and debut in December 2023.
However, that announcement came just days after a writers’ strike on May 2 paved the way for a SAG-AFTRA strike on July 13; the rare 2023 double strike shut down Hollywood productions and brought US-produced series — including Yellowstone — to a halt.
The status of Yellowstone’s final episodes was then locked in a cage for months—until the series officially premiered in November 2024 after settling Costner’s strikes and disputes (which ultimately led to his official departure). But don’t worry, the Yellowstone universe will continue—the aforementioned sequel series now has a new name—The Madison—and a new A-list star to lead and executive produce—Michelle Pfeiffer—as Sheridan solidifies his plans for when the final episodes are finished.
Below, The Hollywood Reporter is tracking everything as it develops about the series, co-created by Yellowstone universe boss Taylor Sheridan, as it goes into the night.
When will the final episodes air?
When it all started, our initial prediction was: “Most likely, sometime in 2024.” And we were right. Paramount Network went on to announce that the second half of the final season would air on November 10 at 8 p.m.
Production was scheduled to resume in late spring 2024, and on May 20, the network announced that production had finally begun in Montana for the final episodes.
Before two of Hollywood’s biggest unions, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, found themselves in a standoff with the studios, Yellowstone had yet to begin production. The scripts by writer Sheridan, who wrote the entire series, were still unfinished. (April through October is when they typically film, with Montana’s snowy winters complicating filming for the outdoor series.) Sheridan began working on the scripts after the writers’ strike was resolved in September 2023.
