Kevin Costner’s unsavory absence from Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone

finale has led to some serious soul-searching for every major actor in the show.

When Yellowstone premiered, the audience labeled the Kevin Costner show as

a reinvention of Westerns and Taylor Sheridan as a modern messiah blessed with the exceptional gift of storytelling. With each season, the series owned up to that reputation – until the past three years when the project took a nosedive concerning its quality of writing.

For the next few years, both Sheridan and Costner have been put through the wringer and relentlessly subjected to controversial fan theories and allegations regarding their work on Yellowstone; and anyone not living under a rock is aware of the highly volatile, if not explosive, nature of the creator and ex-lead actor’s relationship.

Nearly every project in the past half a decade has met a fateful end. The amount of mid-series cancelations, unfinished storylines, and degraded quality of writing has made television a tedious source of modern entertainment. The medium is no longer trustworthy and the audience has been reciprocating as such with animosity and outcry every time a streamer/network pulls the plug on an unfolding show. To remain cautiously optimistic with the release of every new project has now become the order of the day.

As of mid-2024, Kevin Costner has completely washed his hands off of the Paramount flagship series while simultaneously keeping an open mind and his options available. The same, however, cannot be said about Taylor Sheridan.