Yellowstone's Kevin Costner reacts to John Dutton's fate as premiere divides fans

*Warning - This article contains spoilers for season 5b of Yellowstone.*

Yellowstone actor Kevin Costner confirmed he would not be returning for the final few episodes of the series earlier this year. Following the premiere of season 5b on Paramount Network and Paramount Plus, the Hollywood star has now shared his reaction to John Dutton’s fate.

It comes after the latest episode of Yellowstone divided fans, leaving some excited and others disappointed after the long wait. Costner has since weighed in on his character John being killed off in the first few moments of the return to Taylor Sheridan’s neo-western drama.

Speaking on The Michael Smerconish Program on SiriusXM, Costner addressed the Dutton family patriarch’s ending. He said: “I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.”

When host Smerconish pointed out that John didn’t seem like a “suicide kind of guy”, Costner replied: “Well, they’re pretty smart people. Maybe it’s a red herring. Who knows? They’re very good. And they’ll figure that out.”

In the new episode of Yellowstone season 5, it is revealed that John’s death was only staged to look like a suicide.

In fact, it seems he was actually killed by a hitman hired by Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) girlfriend Sarah (Dawn Olivieri).

Costner went on to admit: “I didn’t know it was actually airing last night. That’s a swear to God moment.

“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. … So no, I found out about it this morning actually.”

Addressing why he left the show once more, Costner opened up about his exit following scheduling issues, where he ultimately felt like he had to put his Horizon movie saga first.

“Yeah, I didn’t really have to leave anything behind,” he said. “There was contractual things that would allow for both [Yellowstone and Horizon] 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 [Yellowstone] to keep their schedule. 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 a contract to do all three [remaining seasons]. 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. I accommodated them on those extra two things that changed, and finally when they wanted to change it a third time.

“[But] because I had my obligations to do, I had 300 people waiting for me, I couldn’t help them anymore … everybody has to live up to what they say they’re going to do, and it doesn’t matter what business you’re in.”

Yellowstone airs Sunday nights on Paramount Network, with UK audiences able to stream it the following day on Paramount Plus.