Television’s biggest drama is also the television industry’s biggest drama.

Paramount Network’s hit Western Yellowstone should be on an easy ride

into a record-ratings sunset, but instead it’s

more of a bucking bronco that can’t be tamed. Season 5, which has been on hiatus since January 2023, will be the show’s final season, and while we always knew the end would be near, we weren’t

expecting it this soon, and Paramount Network probably wasn’t either. Star Kevin Costner’s participation in the final episodes of the series is not looking good as the actor moves on to a new

passion project of his own — a series of Western films — which became the impetus for the series ending. But there is some good news from the ranch: Yellowstone Season 5 is back on the horse and has begun production, and in the meantime, it’s reached a whole new audience while airing on CBS.

There’s a lot of unfinished business to take care of before the flagship series signs off. Civil war has broken out among the Duttons, with Jamie (Wes Bentley) and Beth (Kelly Reilly) at each other’s throats, John (Costner) at risk of being impeached, and a devastating illness spreading through Montana wildlife and endangering the Duttons’ cattle.

Below, we’ll go through what we know about the second half of the final season, including the latest release date, cast information, and recaps of the first part of the season to set you up for what’s to come.

Yellowstone latest news

At long last, our national nightmare is over: Yellowstone is FINALLY back in business, after more than 17 months off the air. On May 21, Deadline reported that Yellowstone resumed production on Season 5 Part 2 in Montana and still plans to begin airing its final episodes this November. Let’s hope everyone remembers how to ride a horse.There was also some clarification in the will-he-or-won’t-he Kevin Costner drama. Speaking to GQ, Costner told more of his side of the story and claims that the reason he left Yellowstone was that delays in production interfered with his schedule and some filming contracts he had surrounding his Horizon Western films. There are more details below in the “Will Kevin Costner return to Yellowstone?” section.

Yellowstone is ending with Season 5

Yellowstone will end with Season 5, Paramount has announced. At the time of the announcement in early May 2023, the show’s final episodes were scheduled to premiere in November 2023, while a currently untitled sequel series was confirmed to be in the works and set to debut in December. However, the writers strike and the actors strike delayed both projects, and Season 5 is now set to return in November 2024.

The news that the show will be ending came after months of speculation surrounding the question of whether Kevin Costner would return for the remainder of Season 5 (and a report that claimed Costner would leave the show after Season 5, before the final season

In an eye-opening interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023, Sheridan insisted that his intended ending was still in play, and The Hollywood Reporter said there were ongoing discussions with Costner’s camp to film more scenes to wrap up his character. And in April 2024, Costner told Entertainment Tonight that he’d “love” to return to Yellowstone if he were comfortable with how it came together. But in May — as Yellowstone resumed production — he told GQ that he and Paramount weren’t able to come to terms for his return.

“I’m disappointed,” Sheridan said in the Hollywood Reporter interview. “It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean the final season will be truncated, though. Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 was expected to be just six episodes, and actor Ian Bohen indicated in March of this year that six episodes are still the expectation. However, in June 2023, Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter, “If I think it takes 10 episodes to wrap it up, [Paramount Network will] give me 10. It’ll be as long as it needs to be.”

Paramount has announced a new contemporary Yellowstone spin-off series called 2024, which appears to be the highly anticipated Yellowstone follow-up that Matthew McConaughey is in discussions to lead. Sheridan previously indicated that the series might take place in a different location than the flagship show.

“There are lots of places where a way of life that existed for 150 years is slamming against a new way of life, but the challenges are completely different,” Sheridan told THR. “There are a lot of places you can tell this story.”

One of those places Sheridan wanted to tell that story was on the 6666 ranch, the real-life North Texas ranch that became part of Yellowstone‘s story and the property that Sheridan now owns. However, production on 6666 is now on hold, because Sheridan is looking to spend extra time on it given that he’s personally witnessed its storied history.

Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 release date

Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 will premiere in November 2024, Variety reported on Nov. 2, 2023. This means Season 5 will now be returning a year later than it was originally expected to return. An exact premiere date has not been announced.

Speaking at an event in March, Yellowstone‘s Ian Bohen, who plays Ryan on the series, spoke with Entertainment Tonight and revealed that filming on Season 5 Part 2 would resume in May. “We shoot this summer, and then we should be on in November, roughly,” he said. But he was cautious: “We shoot six episodes… [and start airing in] November… maybe December, and then we go through the holidays, and then maybe season finale — series finale — maybe on Super Bowl, something like that. And that will be the end of an era.” Bohen also said he had not yet seen any scripts.

Will Kevin Costner return to Yellowstone?

Kevin Costner has spoken out about his potential involvement in the final episodes of Yellowstone after his much-publicized breakup with the series.

In an interview with GQ in May, Costner essentially said he had tried to come up with an amicable solution, offering up his time to finish out his arc before he was committed to shoot his Western movie, Horizon: An American Saga. He said he was even willing to come in to film John Dutton’s death scene, if it needed to come to that. According to Costner, “I said, ‘Well, if you want to kill me, if you want to do something like that,’ I said, ‘I have a week before I start [shooting Horizon], I’ll do what you want to do.’” But Paramount and Sheridan didn’t take him up on his offer.

Costner also bemoaned how he was portrayed in the media, with some outlets saying he was only willing to give the show a week of his time, when he feels it was the delays in production and scripts that left him feeling stuck while his passion project waited in the wings, so he moved forward on Horizon.

“What am I supposed to do? I’m just not a dog that waits in a driveway not knowing when the person’s going to come home,” he said. “I want to know. And I also understood that their universe was really big, so I just decided not to sit in the driveway, but to be busy myself and be available when I could. It didn’t end up happening.”

This confirms that Coster and his character John Dutton aren’t currently in the plans for Season 5 Part 2… unless his return is one of Hollywood’s greatest kept secrets and this is one heck of a charade. But with filming kicking off for Season 5 Part 2 and scripts already written, it would be awfully difficult to bring back Costner and stay on schedule. Things aren’t looking good for his return, but the door isn’t completely closed.

Previously, on April 9, Costner was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight at CinemaCon, where he was promoting Horizon, and he said he’d love to return to Yellowstone if it all worked out.

“I’d like to be able to [return to Yellowstone] but we haven’t been able to,” Costner said. “I’ve loved making that series. I made five seasons of it, I thought I was going to make seven [seasons]. 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.”

Yellowstone on CBS

While Yellowstone is on hiatus, it’s still finding new fans. The Paramount Network series made its broadcast debut Sept. 17, 2023, on CBS, where it aired Sundays, starting from the beginning of Season 1. Season 2 began airing on Sunday, Oct. 29.

On Dec. 4, CBS announced it would continue to air Yellowstone in 2024, even though the writers and actors strikes had ended. Season 3 began its run on CBS with three episodes on Jan. 14 and concluded with a two-night finale event on Sunday, Jan. 28 and Monday, Jan. 29. Because CBS returned to regular programming after the Super Bowl on Feb. 11, it’s unclear whether, or when, the network will air Season 4 of Yellowstone. A possible solution would be holding Season 4 and Season 5 Part 1 until the summer, which could help promote the final episodes when they air on Paramount Network in November. However, CBS will be airing another Sheridan series, Tulsa King, in the summer, and hasn’t announced plans to air Season 4 of Yellowstone in the summer or fall.

In its first week on CBS, Yellowstone drew 6.6 million viewers, much more than the 2.8 million who tuned into the series premiere when it debuted on Paramount Network back in 2018. (As the audience grew, episodes on Paramount Network peaked at almost 10 million viewers.)