Revealed: Kevin Costner frantically tried to return to Yellowstone after reports he was skipping final season… but demands to veto Taylor Sheridan’s scripts ended chance of returning

Earlier this summer, it was reported that Kevin Costner would be leaving his hit Paramount+ series Yellowstone ahead of the second half of its fifth – and now final – season.

But a new report claims that Costner and his representatives spent much of his time off over the summer amid the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes negotiating with Paramount and showrunner Taylor Sheridan to get him back on the show. to get.

According to Puck newsthe 68-year-old actor – who has been embroiled in a brutal divorce from Christine Baumgartner in recent months – even wanted to stay on the show for a potential sixth and seventh season if Sheridan, who has written every episode of the show since season three, was still willing to let him go to give it a chance.

But Costner’s whirlwind negotiations reportedly fell apart after he made a series of demands following a disastrous phone call with Sheridan.

The deal-breaking request was reportedly that he be given veto power over Sheridan’s scripts, something the showrunner was unable to adhere to, although Costner also reportedly included a “moral death” clause in his Yellowstone contract that would limit the way his character John Dutton is played severely limited. could be killed.

Earlier this year, Costner had negotiated with Paramount over his requests to reduce his work schedule for Yellowstone season 5B, as he was set to direct the first part of his four-part Western film series Horizon around the same time.

Costner, who has now wrapped principal production on that film, had also asked for more control over the scripts, especially regarding his character’s arc.

However, 101 Studios, which produces Yellowstone, and Paramount, its distributor, ended negotiations in May of this year and simply announced that Costner would not return for Season 5B.

Instead, the series will reportedly move to a sequel with a new title, with Matthew McConaughey joining the group in a new lead role.

After Costner was excluded from the second half of season five, his production partner Rod Lake contacted Keyes Hill-Edgar, COO of Paramount Media Networks and MTV Entertainment Studios, to request an urgent meeting in New York, according to two sources.

Lake made it clear that Costner was desperate to finish his original run on the series and give fans what they asked for, although he also reportedly saw his return to Yellowstone as a way to continue his Horizon films, which he made for Warner Bros. to promote. .

Lake apparently made some progress with Hill-Edgar and convinced him to get Sheridan on the phone with Costner to resolve their differences.

Sheridan had already written scripts for Season 5B that wrote out Costner’s character, but he could rewrite them after the strike if he and the star could come to an arrangement.

The two reportedly chatted on the phone in early July, but the call soured their already strained relations.

Costner – who was described as “speaking in a friendly tone” – reportedly asked for more money and less recording time.

However, it was his demand to see Sheridan’s scripts in advance and approve or possibly veto them that made the writer and director’s blood boil.

While Sheridan has been criticized for spreading himself too thin with multiple shows for Paramount and Paramount+ that he largely writes, directs and showruns himself, he hasn’t been willing to cede that creative control to his star.

Paramount reportedly sided with Sheridan and ended talks shortly after the counterproductive phone call.

However, sources claimed that Paramount Media Networks CEO Chris McCarthy was still open to finding a way for Costner to return, and he hoped that as the writers’ and actors’ strikes continue, they could reach an agreement come.

However, Costner lost all goodwill with the network when he ended up in court during a divorce hearing on September 1, during which he was set to sue for the wages he had expected for season 5B.

But sources claimed that he had already been paid for both halves of season 5, and that he may have been referring to two more potential seasons that he had hoped to film next.

Costner reportedly believed that Paramount was in violation by offering him a package that would allow him to quit seasons 6 and 7, although a source close to production claimed that the studio had “officially” terminated his offer.

Costner’s team now apparently believes that Sheridan’s plans to kill off his character may violate his “moral death” contract clause.

The clause states that his character John Dutton cannot be killed off in a way that would bring shame to his character’s family, which would presumably also embarrass the JFK star.

However, sources close to the show disputed that Sheridan would violate the clause, and they said Costner never read details of how the showrunner planned to direct Dutton.

Although the “moral death” clause was described as an outlier by Paramount, other movie stars have previously tried to ensure that their characters are seen in the most positive light possible.

In 2019 the Wall Street Journal reported that Fast & Furious series stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham all have clauses in their contracts requiring that any on-screen fights not be too skewed in favor of the villain, and that filmmakers are not allowed to let the actors are seriously injured, probably for fear of damaging their pride and macho image.

Despite the desire to keep Costner in the fold, Paramount has seemingly grown accustomed to the idea of ​​a John Dutton-free series. Viewership studies that the network conducted throughout the show reportedly showed that Costner and his character were big talking points on social media, but had shrunk significantly in later seasons, which also coincided with adding more secondary characters to the ensemble— melodrama.

Another obstacle to Costner’s return is that Matthew McConaughey is reportedly ready to join the group, even though he hasn’t officially signed a contract for the new show.

Sheridan already has a slate of Season 5B scripts without John Dutton, so the show could move quickly into production once the writers’ and actors’ strikes against the AMPTP are resolved.