Kevin Costner isn’t the enemy for wanting a say in his ‘Yellowstone’ goodbye arc

Yellowstone fans have been on an emotional roller coaster we didn’t quite sign up for in recent months, and as one of its most passionate viewers, I can confirm that we’ve received less whiplash from Disney World’s Space Mountain than we have in the fandom as of late — and Space Mountain is far from a smooth ride.

Yes, I know we’re talking about the cowboy way of life here, which means Yellowstone fans shouldn’t ever be expecting a smooth ride. Still, there was a level of drama and excitement that we were all used to. Then, the first half of season five closed with the reveal of a family secret in Yellowstone and a slew of rumors in the fandom that felt more like we were suddenly spinning off into some great unknown, knocked off of a horse and trying to catch our breath. 

The first set of rumors hinted at an early exit for Kevin Costner as John Dutton, family patriarch and resident badass. Then chatter began that the future of Yellowstone as a whole was unknown. For months there was a mix of speculation; everyone from Cole Hauser and Wes Bentley to Lainey Wilson had high hopes for Costner’s return and a long future with Yellowstone. In fact, Hauser was under the assumption that we had at least two more seasons with our favorite Dutton family series. 

Things dramatically changed when news broke last week that season five would be Costner’s swan song and, a day later, that season five would be the finale of Yellowstone as we know it. So you can’t really blame fans for feeling like we’ve been put out to pasture.

To date, Costner has yet to speak publicly about his final run as Governor John Dutton, but the rumor mill is again swirling that he’s making demands when it comes to his send-off — and honestly, I’m struggling to find the issue with it. The series as a whole might belong to the Dutton family, but it’s a John Dutton love story at the end of the day.

John’s promise to his father is at the heart of the story, and the episodes all follow his personal mission to ensure he keeps it. We’ve seen him deal with the untimely death of his wife and son; he’s been seen in chapters as a broken man and, in others, as a pillar of strength.

Our leading man has all but begged for direction from his wife as he screams to the heavens without making a noise, and in the next scene, he’s composed and prepared for whatever fresh manure the day will bring. I’ve seen pieces of those I love most in John, and I think you’d get a similar response from audiences everywhere. John is a layered man, complex in his emotions and the way he delivers them, and he’s far from right most of the time — but his reasoning is usually justified in a primal desire to ensure that his family succeeds with or without him. 

So when we imagine a future without him, we don’t think Costner is being bossy or difficult for wanting a send-off that suits both himself as a man and John Dutton as a character. If you’d spent half of a decade of your life playing a role and saw an end that was out of your hands, wouldn’t you want to solidify your stamp on the way you said goodbye to that chapter?

The rumor mill has certainly been spinning in anyone’s favor but Costner’s, and it’s not like I have the guy on speed dial; I can’t make judgments on his character, just assumptions, and I think it’s safe to assume that there are a lot of moving parts to the fast-approaching end to Yellowstone. Be that as it may, Costner isn’t the enemy for wanting to help usher his character out of this realm of existence, and I’d be willing to bet he’s not the only party that should have to shoulder the weight he’s been carrying.

Let’s jump to a television show I watch as religiously as I do Yellowstone, One Tree Hill. Yes, we’re going there — so buckle in. There were many premature deaths in that series, but two that rocked us in a significant way: Keith and Quentin. For the sake of storytelling, their deaths had a purpose, but they deserved better. 

Keith being killed at the hands of his brother made sense for Dan’s arc, and Q being killed at the hands of the man robbing the gas station made sense for that sorry character’s arc, too. What didn’t make sense was that we had to lose Q to get someone less worthy to a place he needed to go. We hated trying to make sense of losing Keith to further Dan’s story. 

So when fans think about John Dutton and whatever drama might exist behind the scenes, they’re not wrong to wonder if he might meet an ill-fated ending out of spite or some twisted necessity; no one wants that for him, including the man who breathes life into his story.

John Dutton’s love letter deserves a beautiful end, one that makes sense for a character who has led the charge in bridging the generation gap between families, making fans want to dress up and host watch parties in their homes, and is the only family patriarch who can exist in the middle of so much dysfunction and still have an incredibly loyal fan base. No one else could have played this version of John Dutton, Costner’s voice deserves to be heard as we wrap up his character arc, and you won’t convince me that he’s wrong for that.