Yellowstone has sadly come to an end after the season 5 finale, and it all happened without Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III, since the actor exited the show in 2023. If Costner had stuck around for the second part of Yellowstone season 5, things might have been a lot different. However, the neo-Western drama TV show created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson has seemingly concluded (unless the rumors about Yellowstone season 6 still happening are true), and John’s story is over.
A few days ahead of the Yellowstone series finale, Deadline reported that a spinoff revolving around Rip and Beth, with Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser set to reprise their roles, is officially in development.
The Yellowstone season 5, part 2 premiere revealed that John died presumably by suicide, but viewers (and Beth) knew that wasn’t the truth. In reality, Sarah Atwood hired assassins to kill John. They staged it as a suicide, and it wasn’t until Kayce pushed the medical examiner to take a second look at his father’s body that the police changed his cause of death. Detective Dillard reopened John’s case, and after Sarah died, all eyes were on Jamie. Ultimately, Beth helped complete John’s story when she murdered Jamie during the finale and told Dillard the truth (aside from her brother’s death, of course).
Would Yellowstone Have Ended With Season 5?
Paramount Only Announced Yellowstone’s End After Kevin Costner Left
One of the biggest “what ifs” concerning Kevin Costner’s exit from Yellowstone is if the show would continue after season 5 if John was still in the picture. Once Costner announced his departure, Paramount quickly reported that Yellowstone would end after season 5. Consequently, many believed that the two announcements were connected. Perhaps Paramount believed that losing the face of the series was a death sentence for Yellowstone, and they canceled it. The fact that the two reports were released back-to-back certainly doesn’t feel coincidental, after all.
