It seems there is absolutely no love lost between Kevin Costoner and his former Yellowstone co-star Luke Grimes following Costner’s abrupt departure from Paramount’s hit drama.
In February 2023, reports surfaced from Deadline which suggested there was trouble brewing on the set with reports that Costner was causing “frustration” with series creator Taylor Sheridan over his restricted shooting schedule. Deadline sources revealed that Costner had limited himself to 65 days of shooting on Yellowstone and only wanted to spend a week shooting the second half of what would become the show’s final season.
A few months later in May 2023, Paramount announced the hit series would end with season 5. After months of speculation and rumors about Costner leaving the show, Costner finally confirmed his exit from the show via an Instagram post on June 20. In the video, Costner finally confirmed that he would not be returning for the final episodes of the show telling fans, “Thinking about Yellowstone, I just realized I’m not going to be able to continue season 5B or into the future.”
Costner’s exit seemed to ruffle a lot of feathers with the final season becoming shrouded in reports of on-set tension, and it seems there might have indeed been some bad blood between Costner and his fellow co-stars, at least that’s the vibe we’re picking up on from the latest comments made by Costner’s former co-star.
In speaking about the final episodes in a new interview with Esquire, Grimes threw some major shade Costner’s way making it clear that he was most certainly a source of conflict on set.
“To be really honest, there was a part of Kevin being gone that meant some of the conflict was gone. Obviously, it didn’t make it super fun to be around. Not pointing any fingers, but it was actually the easiest season we’ve filmed.”
Yikes! It definitely seems like there was more to the story than some have let on about and Grimes’ comments about the final season being the easiest season to film in the show’s run hints that Costner might have been causing more than a few headaches on set not just for the creative team but for his co-stars as well.
While fans might be missing John Dutton’s presence in the final season, it seems clear the cast most certainly wasn’t missing Costner’s presence on set and it seems his absence created a more productive atmosphere based on Grimes’ comments. And honestly, that does make sense in the sense that reports indicated Costner restricted his time on set which could make filming difficult, so without Costner needed for the season we imagine the flow for filming became much easier to manage as all needed parties were available and present for the duration of the filming stretch and not a limited window.
Yellowstone's series finale airs Sunday, Dec. 15 on Paramont Network.