After lengthy production delays last year, filming has begun on the second part of Yellowstone’s fifth and final season in Montana. Read on to learn everything to know about Yellowstone Season 5, part two, from the release date to the latest on Kevin Costner’s involvement.
Yellowstone is Paramount Network’s modern-day Western drama created by Taylor Sheridan (Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown). The show centers around the Duttons, the owners of the largest ranch in Montana, and chronicles the family’s struggles to protect their land from land developers, political rivals, and other external threats. Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille and more also star.
Season 5 of Yellowstone was divided into two parts. The first eight episodes were broadcast between November 2022 and January 2023, while the remaining second part will premiere sometime in November 2024. Paramount has yet to announce the exact release date for part two.
The final season of Yellowstone is expected to be wrapped up with six episodes. However, Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter in July 2023 that he felt that Paramount could give him 10 episodes if he needed them.
Most of the Yellowstone Season 5 cast are expected to return for the super-sized finale, except for Kevin Costner, whose involvement is uncertain. The main cast members likely coming back include Beth (Kelly Reilly), Jamie (Wes Bentley), Kayce (Luke Grimes), and Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille).
As of May 2024, it’s unknown whether Kevin Costner will appear in Season 5, part two. However, the actor has been vocal in recent weeks about wanting to finish the series. He also opened up about what exactly went down between him, the show’s creator, and Paramount, last year.
“I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to,” Costner told Entertainment Tonight in April. “…I thought I was going to make seven [seasons] but right now we’re at five. 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.”
As for last year’s drama that captivated news headlines, Costner told GQ in May that his actual issue with the show was more straightforward than the media portrayed it to be. When he set out to make Horizon, he said he imagined the four-part feature film to complement Yellowstone. “I’ve always wanted to do this movie,” Costner told the site, “and I was doing Yellowstone. I love Yellowstone.”
But he said he was waiting and holding time in his schedule to make Yellowstone when production was delayed for various reasons, including COVID, the writers’ strike, and further disagreements about scheduling. “We very rarely started when we said we would and we didn’t finish when we said we would,” he added.
Then, the show decided to split Season 5 into two parts. “And their big plan was to suddenly do eight now and then in the fall do eight more,” he explained. “I said, ‘I have a contract to do Horizon, and I have people and money.’ I think there was a belief that I couldn’t get it mounted, but I didn’t really care what anybody believed.”
In May 2023, Paramount Network announced that Yellowstone was ending after Season 5 following scheduling disputes with Costner. The network also announced that it had greenlit two spinoff series, 1994 and 2024, to join its growing franchise — which already consists of 1883, 1923, Lawmen: Bass Reeves and the upcoming 6666 series.
Last year, Matthew McConaughey was in talks to star in one of the upcoming Yellowstone spinoff series, potentially bringing some of the original cast over to the new series. However, it’s unknown whether that’s still the case.
