surfaced with new details indicating the show could continue.

The Santa Barbara, California native, 49, said on CBS Mornings that he and the show’s creator Taylor Sheridan worked

closely together to developing Rip’s progression throughout the series.

‘In talking to Taylor and spending a lot of time with him, I saw a character that had growth, and who could grow through the seasons,’ said Hauser.

Hauser said he ‘liked the fact that [Rip] was the enforcer,’ and his relationship to the Beth Dutton and John Dutton characters, played respectively by Kelly Reilly and Kevin Costner.

‘There was something that was very kind of beautiful that he wrote as far as his love for Beth – and the family, for that matter – and John Dutton,’ Hauser said.

Hauser gave fans of the hit Western series a sneak peek at the second installment of the show’s forthcoming fifth season, which returns to the air Sunday via multiple platforms.

The show’s season 5B will proceed without the franchise’s main star Kevin Costner, who departed the series amid creative differences with showrunner Taylor Sheridan; and his film franchise Western epic Horizon: An American Saga.

Asked about how the show handles Costner’s departure creatively, Hauser said, ‘You’ll have to watch and see,’ noting that his character was going to shoulder more responsibilities amid the void.

‘So much of this year is about picking up the pieces and moving forward, and there’s a big responsibility on Rip to help run the ranch and also support Beth and the family,’ said Hauser.

Hauser, who has also been seen in movies such as Good Will Hunting, Dazed and Confused and Higher Learning, said that the season is ‘different,’ and he thinks Sheridan ‘wrote an unbelievable year’ that he’s ‘really excited for the audience to see.’

Hauser said that his character Rip ‘has these intense qualities’ and ‘also has these beautiful, heartfelt moments with Beth that I really thank Taylor and his writings for doing that, because he’s the first that kind of saw both sides and be able to mold him into one character.’

CBS is planning on airing the season 5B debut – which marks the first new episode of the show in nearly two years – two hours after it airs on Paramount Network, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Paramount Network will air the show Sunday at 8/7c, while CBS will air the show at 10/9c, following a broadcast of the show Tracker. The broadcast, which will come after a pair of NFL football games on the network, the outlet reported.

This block of episodes was originally set to be the show’s last – in the wake of Costner’s exit as lead character John Dutton; Hauser appeared on the show amid a report from the entertainment industry newsletter Puck that the last half of the fifth season will not close out Sheridan’s epic Western series, as previously believed.

The newsletter reported that Hauser and Reilly were in the final process of signing new contracts with the Paramount Network, either for a sixth season or a spinoff series, according to TVLine

In March, Reilly told Radio Times that there were ongoing ‘discussions,’ adding, ‘Don’t believe everything you read. It’s just nonsense.’

Fans of the show were shocked in August amid reports Paramount was in talks over a sixth season of Yellowstone.

A potential sixth season would focus on Cole Hauser’s Rip Wheeler and Kelly Reilly’s Beth Dutton, the daughter of Costner’s John Dutton.

Both Rip and Beth were featured in images released by Paramount in August, as they were seen looking out into the horizon on John’s iconic Yellowstone ranch in Montana.

Another image featured one of John’s other children, Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), the Montana attorney general. He was seen standing at a podium with the Montana state seal, with former governor Lynelle Perry (Wendy Moniz) at his side. Jamie’s father John was elected governor of Montana and sworn in at the start of Season 5, which debuted back in 2022.

There is still no indication how John Dutton will be written off the show – if he will be permanently killed off or written off in some other fashion.

Another image showed Rip looking over his adopted son Carter (Finn Little) as he rests in bed. Another Yellowstone power couple – Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) and his wife Monica Kelsey Asbille are seen with their son Tate (Brecken Merrill), seemingly doing well after their traumatic car accident.

The final snap showcases Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and his right-hand man Mo Brings Plenty, the former surveying plans of some sort.

The on-screen couple were reportedly in talks of joining the Yellowstone spinoff The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

In April, when asked about the possibility of a sixth season, Reilly told RadioTimes ‘I just care about finishing Yellowstone with as much care and as much passion and as much love as I can muster to put into it … I’m sort of prepping for that now, [and] that ’s my tunnel-vision thing that I care about most.’