Jeff Bridges Nearly Landed Yellowstone Lead Before Kevin Costner Won John Dutton Role in 2018

Q: Could Yellowstone have ended years ago if the network hadn't forced its creator to abandon his original three-season plan?

Yes. By Taylor Sheridan’s own account, *Yellowstone* was originally designed to pivot away from Kevin Costner after Season 3, so the series could have ended years earlier in something close to its intended form. Sheridan has said Costner was contracted for only the first three seasons and that he and Costner had conceived the show as a three-season story before “the baton” passed to the next generation, particularly Kayce Dutton. He said the network was reluctant to lose Costner because *Yellowstone* had become such a massive hit, and that fear kept Costner on for two more seasons. That means the network did not necessarily prevent the show from ending outright at Season 3, but it did block Sheridan’s original timeline. Instead of a planned transition, the flagship series stretched to five seasons and 53 episodes, with Season 5 split in two parts and the final episodes not arriving until late 2024. Sheridan has also indicated that extending Costner’s run hurt the storytelling. He said the show had to “tread water for a bit,” suggesting that the longer run diluted the original arc. Costner eventually left over scheduling and creative issues tied in part to *Horizon: An American Saga*, forcing the series to finish without its central star. So the evidence points to this: had Paramount accepted Sheridan’s initial three-season plan, *Yellowstone* likely would have changed dramatically—or possibly wrapped in its original form—several years earlier than it did.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 6

Kevin Kay said Taylor Sheridan originally wanted Jeff Bridges to play John Dutton, but Paramount pushed for Kevin Costner as the more marketable face for Yellowstone.
Costner was difficult to secure because he was reluctant to return to television after what Kay described as a bad, low-budget experience on Hatfields & McCoys.
The script ultimately persuaded Costner, who went on to anchor Yellowstone from its 2018 debut through the first half of Season 5.
That casting choice gained fresh attention as Bridges promoted Horizon: An American Saga, the Western film series Costner later cited when confirming in 2024 he would not return for Yellowstone's final episodes.