Kevin Costner Left ‘Yellowstone’ After 5 Seasons: Here’s Why

As far as Costner was concerned, there were some issues involving his schedule. At first, he had put aside 65 days for filming Yellowstone but he wanted to reduce it to 50 days and season five.

It seems as if Costner wanted to work on more personal projects and put Yellowstone on more of a back burner. He was asked about his position with Yellowstone and how he balanced it with other commitments. He admitted: “Well, I haven’t felt good about it the last year, what with the way they’ve talked about it. It wasn’t truthful.”

He went on to say that his original contract was to cover five and up to seven seasons. When it was renegotiated in 2024, it was only associated with season 5A and 5B. There may have been the six season associated with it as well.

Costner said: “I’m so thrilled to be going there. And listen, I don’t want to get down in the gutter with the ‘Yellowstone’ thing, but what I’m telling you is straight up.”

“But if you know me well enough, I made ‘Yellowstone’ the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong. I did not initiate any of those things. They did. They were doing a tap dance, and this poor guy was also having to write so much.”

He did say he wasn’t sure why the team didn’t get behind them on the issues but he decided he wasn’t going to dwell on that. He said: “They’ve been pretty slick about keeping their hands off; nobody was ever on the record.”

He went on to say: “I left early to give them what they needed to have a complete eight, and I felt bad that the audience didn’t get 10. They didn’t have the scripts for anything else. So, what you read in the end was that I said, ‘Well, look, I’m doing my movie. If you want me to work a week because you want to kill me or whatever else, I can give you a week.’”