The actor and director has been written out of the family saga after he exited the series due to scheduling conflicts with his film Horizon: An American Saga. Costner’s John Dutton was killed off during the premiere of the second half of Season 5, and in a new interview, he shares his opinion.
“I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it,” Costner said on The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM.
When Smerconish noted that John Dutton didn’t seem like a “suicide kind of guy,” Costner said, “Well, they’re pretty smart people. Maybe it’s a red herring. Who knows? They’re very good. And they’ll figure that out.”
During the interview, Costner reiterated that he didn’t quit Yellowstone due to scheduling that didn’t give him time to continue on the series.
“I didn’t really have to leave anything behind. There were the gaps that were there. There was contractual things that would allow for both things to be done, but because both things were contractual, you had to make room for the other thing. There was room, but it was difficult for them to keep their schedule,” Costner said. “It seemed to be, it was just too difficult for them to do it. There was the time there, what happened, you can deal with it. But no one, I didn’t leave. I didn’t quit the show. Okay? I had made a contract to do all three. There was a contract in place to do all three. And within about an eight-month period, two more different kind of contracts were being negotiated. Not at my request, but at their request to try to do things.”
Costner continued, “I accommodated them on those extra two things that changed, things change, and finally when they wanted to change it a third time, because I had my obligations to do, I had 300 people waiting for me, I couldn’t help them anymore. I just simply couldn’t help them. But I didn’t quit the show. There was no, there was just a, you know, everybody has to live up to what they say they’re going to do. And it doesn’t matter what business you’re in.”
