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Yellowstone Made Its Long-Awaited Return On Sunday, November 10

Like many others, Kevin Costner is reacting to the fate of his Yellowstone character, John Dutton.

Before you continue, consider this your warning: there will be spoilers below for the latest episode of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone made its long-awaited return on Sunday (November 10). The program went on an extended hiatus following its midseason break in January 2023.

Hollywood strikes and rumored behind-the-scenes conflicts contributed to the delay. One of the rumored conflicts was with series lead Kevin Costner, who played John Dutton.

Eventually, Costner announced he was not involved in filming Yellowstone‘s new episodes.

RELATED: COLE HAUSER IS “ALL FOR” THE IDEA OF A “YELLOWSTONE” SPIN-OFF WITH BETH & RIP

Still, when Yellowstone returned on Sunday night, fans were hoping Costner would make an appearance. These hopes were heightened since (old) footage of Costner as John Dutton was prominently featured in the trailer Yellowstone released to hype up the new episodes.

What Happened To Kevin Costner’s Character John Dutton?

Yellowstone wasted no time in revealing John Dutton’s fate on Sunday night. Just minutes into the episode, viewers witnessed a devastating scene as Beth and Kayce Dutton discovered their father’s body inside the Montana governor’s mansion.

The scene was staged to look like his death was self-inflicted. But Beth thinks otherwise, believing that her adopted brother, Jamie, is behind it.

We later learn that Sarah Atwood, who’s connected to Market Equities, ordered the hit that led to John’s death. Sarah is romantically connected to Jamie (although she’s using him). The pair had prior conversations about how “nice” it would be if John was out of the picture.

For his part, Jamie seems to be emotionally distraught after learning about John’s death. But is it all an act?

Kevin Costner Reacts After Learning About John Dutton’s Fate

Because he wasn’t involved in filming, Costner learned about John Dutton’s fate along with everyone else. He reacted to the new episode during an interview on SiriusXM’s The Michael Smerconish Program on Monday (November 11).

Costner admitted he didn’t see the new episode himself and actually didn’t even know it was airing:

“I swear to God. I mean, I’ve been seeing ads with my face all over the place, and I’m thinking, ‘Gee, I’m not in that one.’ I’m not in this season. But I’ve been seeing, but I didn’t realize yesterday was the thing. I really have, my focus has been on what I was having to do, and I’ve got a few calls to make.”

After learning about the new episode, Costner reacted to his former character’s fate, “I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.” He added, “…Maybe it’s a red herring. Who knows? They’re very good. And they’ll figure that out.“

Costner said he didn’t know anything about the plan for his character, though they had talked about potential endings before:

“No, no, that’s their business. I gave it five seasons. I didn’t even know I was going to do it that long. There was a couple times where I talked about possible endings for myself.”

Costner also wanted to clarify that he didn’t “quit” Yellowstone. He claimed it was “difficult” for Yellowstone to “keep their schedule” to allow him time to work on his Horizon movie saga.

Costner also explained some of the behind-the-scenes intricacies with contracts and other changes that eventually led to him not appearing in Yellowstone‘s new episodes.

“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. OK?”

Only time will tell how Yellowstone will continue now without Costner’s John Dutton at the forefront…

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