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After almost two years of questions of what will happen to John Dutton III in Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2, fans finally learned the fate of the Dutton family patriarch when the series returned on November 10, 2024. However, if you aren’t caught up the drama around Kevin Costner’s character and where he is in Yellowstone‘s final season, we break down exactly what happened behind the scenes of America’s favorite western.

What happened to John Dutton on Yellowstone?

The premiere of Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2 revealed that John Dutton was killed after a fatal gunshot wound in the bathroom of the Montana governor’s mansion. Though viewers don’t see Costner’s face in the scene, Yellowstone does show a bloodied body of an older man at the crime scene.

Beth immediately assumes that Jamie was involved, and flashbacks show to events leading up to the fateful night eventually reveal that she is, at least in part, right. Viewers learn that after Jamie and lover Sarah discussed doing away with John, she took a meeting with people who could not only kill the patriarch but make it look like a suicide.

Despite Jamie having been all-in at the suggestion, it becomes clear at episode’s end that he didn’t really think Sarah would pick up the ball and run with it. Upon discovering her beau crying over his father’s death, Sarah reminds him that lions don’t die of old age, they die in the mouths of younger lions… which is what happened to his dad.

By episode’s end, Beth convinces Kayce of Jamie’s guilt… and make it clear that she intends to see their brother dead for his sin!

John was written out of Yellowstone‘s final season, Season 5, Part 2, after news broke in May 2023 that Kevin Costner, who had played the character since Season 1, would not be returning to the series following drama with Yellowstone‘s creator, Taylor Sheridan, with Matthew McConaughey set to replace him as the lead of a new Yellowstone series.

More: See photos of Yellowstone Season 5

The news came three months after Puck News reported that Costner and Sheridan were “at odds” over scheduling issues around Costner’s movie Horizon: An American Saga, which Costner wanted to film around the same time Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2 was set to shoot. The film, which Costner directed and starred in, premiered in September 2024.

“Kevin Costner is famously headstrong and he has been at odds with Taylor Sheridan, the creator of this show, for months now over the days that he’s gonna be shooting for the next part of the season,” Puck News reported at the time. The site added that many on the set of Yellowstone felt like Costner had “a pretty big ego,” which “came to the forefront on Yellowstone, especially recently, as has a passion project that he’s wanted to do for a long time — to direct this movie called Horizon, which is a Western that he’s directing and starring in.”

More: Inside the Dutton family tree and how they’re related

Sheridan broke his silence on Costner’s exit from Yellowstone in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023, calling the decision “disappointing.” “My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered,” Sheridan said. “His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful … and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone. But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”

Costner, for his part, broke his silence on the drama in a child support hearing with his estranged wife, Christine Baumgartner, in September 2023, claiming that his decision to leave Yellowstone was part of a “long, hard-fought negotiation.” “We tried to negotiate, they offered me less money than previous seasons, there were issues with the creative,” he said at the time.

Does John Dutton die in Yellowstone?

Kelly Reilly, who plays Beth Dutton, seemed to hint that John dies in Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2 in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in October 2024 in which she revealed that Costner’s absence was a part of the series’ ending. “The absence was part of the ending. That’s not something that we had to pivot, that was already written into the tapestry of the story. It was always going to happen, it just happened a little bit differently,” she said.

Cole Hauser, who plays Rip Wheeler, also hinted at John’s death in an interview with Parade ahead of the series’ final season premiere, in which he called the loss of John in Season 5, Part 2 a “tremendous loss.” There’s been tremendous loss. Being the man that he is, and also the husband and the friend that he is to [Beth], there’s just a lot of support and Rip trying to do the best he can to help her,” Hauser said.

More: See Beth Reilly’s all-time best burns

Is John Dutton coming back to Yellowstone?

Though he was killed in the Season 5, Part 2 premiere, Costner told Entertainment Tonight in April 2024 that he would “love” to make a guest appearance in Yellowstone’s final season if scheduling allows to write off his character in flashbacks. “I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to,” Costner said. “I thought I was going to make seven [seasons] but right now we’re at five. So how it works out — I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe it will. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it.”

More: Meet the Yellowstone cast’s kids in real life

While Costner doesn’t seem to be in Yellowstone‘s final season, director Christina Varos confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that John is still a central part of the Season 5 Part 2. “His presence is integral,” she said. She continued, “I think to say any more than that would potentially compromise all the work that went into redacting the script. He is the patriarch and his presence is an essential component to the story.”