It might not have television's most friendly set these days, but production on the final six episodes of the Yellowstone flagship series is officially underway in Montana, distributor Paramount Global said Monday.
Part 2 of the fifth and final season of Yellowstone is set to premiere on the Paramount Network in November -- two full years after the debut of the eight-episode part 1.
Production was delayed by last year's Hollywood guild strikes, as well as an acrimonious scheduling conflict centering around leading man Kevin Costner, who has been overseeing a multipart Western feature film epic, Horizon.
Costner received a lengthy standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival over the weekend after screening part 1, Horizon: An American Saga. (Critics weren't as kind, with one describing the three-hour film as "more Waterworld than Dances With Wolves.)
For his part, creator/producer Taylor Sheridan is moving the forward-looking edge of the franchise san Costner, with working-titled 2024 currently in pre-production.
Sheridan, who has already launched three Yellowstone prequels, is also developing 6666, which is focused on a Texas ranch founded an operated by the Comanches.
Sheridan's series empire, which also includes Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King and Lioness, could probably populate an entire menu bar on the Paramount Plus user interface.
Indeed, it's been a powerful driver for multiple Paramount platforms, including CBS, which received some of its biggest audience ratings of the 2023-24 TV season when it ran five-year-old Yellowstone repeats last fall to fill in the blanks on its strike-bereft schedule.
