You’ve likely heard about all the tricks Disney has deployed in the past to keep spoilers from leaking during the production of its MCU movies and shows, but it seems that an unlikely contender might be beating them out on the secrecy front: Yellowstone.
At long last, Paramount’s hit drama has finished its final season, and as you’d expect, all of the creatives involved have been sworn to secrecy. It would seem, however, that things go even further than typical secrecy fare, as we have learned that the actors weren’t even given complete scripts at the time of filming. Christina Voros, who has directed several episodes of the show, recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and detailed the secrecy running rampant on the set of Yellowstone’s final season. The biggest revelation? Even some MCU veterans were shocked at how close to the vest the creatives kept the scripts.
“This was new territory for all of us,” Voros explained. “We have some people in the crew who worked in the Marvel universe, and they thought what we were doing was crazy.”
“It was all borne out of protecting what Taylor and this cast and this family of creators has built over the years, and knowing how much anticipation there was for these scripts. The energy around it was more about protecting it for the audience than it was some clandestine thing, and we went to great, great lengths. We didn’t have a script coordinator; I took over that role and did the redactions for every cast member. Most of the cast only got the scenes they were in. So for a large portion of the cast, even for some of our seven-year veterans, they will be learning what happens when the show premieres.”
That might sound extreme, and it is, but it’s on par with stories that have been shared from the set of the biggest Marvel films. It’s wild to imagine that actors who have been part of the cast since it began still don’t know what happens at the end of the series, but that’s just part of the business. Honestly, it’s great that the production team is going to these lengths to avoid spoilers, as the last thing anyone wants is for fans to have the conclusion ruined before having a chance to watch it play out on their screens along with everyone else.
As Voros took on the duty of distributing redacted scripts, she explained that she became a sort of gatekeeper for the story, choosing what pieces of information are given out to each member of the cast ⏤ a possibly fun but also stressful position to be in, from the sound of it.
Voros directed four of the six episodes in the final part of the last Yellowstone season. These episodes will be released weekly starting Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, at 8pm on the Paramount Network. If you miss a new episode during this time slot, you can always catch the encore broadcast on CBS at 10pm. For those who haven’t seen the first episodes of season 5 or just want a refresher, you can binge through every episode of the series to date on the Paramount Plus app. Let’s hope that the final episodes can maintain the same impressive quality fans have come to expect and wrap up this incredible story in spectacular fashion.