Taylor Sheridan Makes Rare Comment About Kevin Costner's “Yellowstone” Exit: 'He Was Ready to Go'

Brenton BlanchetTue, June 30, 2026 at 3:26 PM UTC

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Taylor Sheridan and Kevin Costner attend the 2018 premiere of 'Yellowstone' in Hollywood, Calif.Credit: Michael Tullberg/WireImage -

Taylor Sheridan opened up about Kevin Costner's Yellowstone exit

The series creator said on The Bill Simmons Podcast that Costner was initially "only supposed to be in the first three seasons"

"He's like, 'I gotta go do my own thing,'" Sheridan recalled

Taylor Sheridan is sharing more about why Kevin Costner left Yellowstone.

The series creator, 56, made rare comments about Costner's 2024 exit from the hit Western during a Sunday, June 28 episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast.

Costner, who played patriarch John Dutton for five seasons beginning in 2018, confirmed his exit from the show in June 2024, revealing that he would not be returning for the second half of season 5.

During his recent podcast appearance, Sheridan explained that the actor was "only supposed to be in the first three seasons" to begin with.

"That was in his contract. In my mind, that's when his youngest son takes over [on the show]... But the network was so scared of not having Kevin be a part of it, even though Kevin was ready. He was ready to go," said Sheridan. "He had other things he wanted to do but he stayed on for another two seasons."

Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan in Pasadena, Calif. on Jan. 15, 2018Credit: Frederick M. Brown/Getty

Sheridan added, "And that was just because the show was such a behemoth. It was such a huge hit. The notion of giving up a hit before it had run out of juice to squeeze is very foreign to a network. There was even pressure from some of the cable companies wanting to put it in their deals, that they were going to get an X number of seasons of Yellowstone to re-up what this cable company is. That's the power of a really big hit show."

As Sheridan explained, Costner, 71, "hit a point where" he decided it was time to move on.

"He's like, 'I gotta go do my own thing,'" he recalled. "But we originally conceived it together that it was three seasons and then the baton is handed. ... Because we had to tread water for a bit there. I think it was pretty evident."

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Sheridan's comments come two years after Costner's June 2024 Instagram post, in which he announced his exit and called the show "something that really changed" him. "I loved it and I know you loved it. And I just wanted to let you know that I won't be returning,” he wrote. “I love the relationship that we've been able to develop, and I'll see you at the movies."

Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan attend the June 11, 2018 premiere of 'Yellowstone'Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty

Costner's character was killed off in the second part of season 5. His departure followed reports that surfaced surrounding scheduling conflicts and production issues in 2023. The series itself concluded in December 2024 at the end of its fifth season.

Sheridan previously told The Hollywood Reporter that he was “disappointed” in Costner’s exit and that "it truncates the closure of his character."

Costar Luke Grimes told PEOPLE in 2024 about continuing with the final episodes without Costner on set, reiterating what Sheridan said about Costner's character bowing out. "Him not coming back felt like, 'Okay, we're going to have to land this plane now for real,'" Grimes said at the time. "I think the patriarch leaving was always going to be part of the story. That's always where it was headed is like, what do these kids do? What does this family do when their rock is gone?"

He added of Costner, "He's a big presence, man, guy's an icon. So not having him around to set felt a little different. But as always, I mean, we're a big family now."

Elsewhere during his latest interview, Sheridan said he doesn't create with the intention of winning awards — despite two of his shows, The Madisonand Landman, being on the Emmy ballot this year.

“You're not going to win no Emmys with me, but I'm not trying to win Emmys,” he told host Bill Simmons. “That's not my goal. My goal is to sit somebody on their couch and move them, make them think, make them laugh, scare the s--- out of them, excite them. That's what I want to do, because that's what I want from a show.”

“I knew when I started writing [I wanted] to simply not do what everyone else was doing,” he added. “What everyone else was doing was taking shortcuts, essentially breaking all the very basic fundamental rules of storytelling, because they couldn't figure out their story.”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”