Yellowstone, the Paramount series which follows a ranch-owning family in Wyoming and stars Kevin Costner, will be coming to a close after five seasons.
According to Variety, after months of speculation about Costner’s departure, the series now has an official endpoint.
However, fans of the show should fear not, as an untitled spin-off series has already been ordered by the network, so elements of the Yellowstone story will continue to play out in a future series.
Paramount has also announced that the second half of series five will officially premiere in November.
“Yellowstone has been the cornerstone on which we have launched an entire universe of global hits – from 1883 to Tulsa King, and I am confident our ‘Yellowstone’ sequel will be another big hit,” said Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios CEO Chris McCarthy.
The spin-off series, which will have Yellowstone in its name, has writer Taylor Sheridan attached as the showrunner, and Matthew McConaughey is even reportedly one of the actors potentially joining the new show.
Season on season the series received mixed reviews from the critics, with The Guardian calling it “a soapy mess”, but with Vanity Fair saying it “warrants more consideration than it gets from certain corners of the culture”.
But over the years the series has raked in major viewing figures, with over five million people tuning in for its season three finale. According to The Hollywood Reporter, in 2020 it “passed The Walking Dead as the most watched series on cable, excluding sports and news”.
According to Variety, the show had allegedly faced filming difficulties due to Kevin Costner’s tight filming schedule, which meant his availability decreased as the series progressed. But in February a Paramount spokesperson said, “We have no news to report. Kevin Costner is a big part of Yellowstone and we hope that’s the case for a long time to come.”
Yellowstone was co-created by Sheridan, whose past credits include Denis Villeneuve’s 2015 thriller Sicario and David Mackenzie’s neo-Western Hell or High Water, and John Linson, who produced Great Expectations (1998) and The Runaways (2010)
Yellowstone stars Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes (American Sniper), Kelly Reilly (True Detective), Wes Bentley (American Horror Story) Cole Hauser (2 Fast 2 Furious), Kelsey Asbille (Fargo), and Gil Birmingham (The Twilight Saga). It tells the story of the issues a family faces as they live and work on a large cattle ranch near the Broken Rock Indian reservation.
