Yellowstone Went To Extreme Lengths To Prevent Plot Leaks After Kevin Costner's Exit

Is "Yellowstone" ending or not? The answer, at least at this point, is, "We don't know." One thing that's for sure, however, is that Kevin Costner will not be returning to the hugely popular series when the second half of its fifth season finally arrives. That's because the actor made a controversial exit from the show to pursue his "Horizon" films — a passion project that comprises a saga of Westerns, the first of which sadly bombed at the box office.

In his wake, the show was supposed to wrap up with the long-gestating season 5, part 2. But recent reports suggest series mainstays Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, who play John's daughter Beth Dutton and foreman Rip Wheeler respectively, could lead a sixth season of the show. Whether that transpires very much depends upon whether series creator Taylor Sheridan returns to write the new episodes, which is Reilly's one condition for agreeing to star in a sixth season of "Yellowstone." While negotiations are ongoing, it remains unclear whether season 5 part 2, which is set to debut this November, will be the final installment in Sheridan's neo Western or not.

What's more, these last episodes of season 5 have already been heavily delayed, not just by Costner's exit but by the Hollywood strikes of 2023. All of which meant the producers had to be extremely fastidious when it came to keeping the story under wraps while the season struggled to film.

In a new promotional video for the second half of season 5 (via The Hollywood Reporter), the stars of "Yellowstone" revealed that the new episodes were shot with redacted scripts, allowing the actors to only see their own lines and not those of their colleagues. Not only did this result in real-time reactions while shooting the episodes, it means that most of the cast doesn't fully know what happens in what could be the series finale of "Yellowstone."

Kelsey Asbille, who plays Monica Dutton in the show, described the process of shooting the final season as "very secretive," while Jen Landon, who plays ranch hand Teeter, added, "We get these redacted scripts and basically everything is blacked out except for your lines." Such a change presented "a new set of challenges," according to director Christina Voros, who said, "It's a huge testament to the intrepidness of the crew because you've learned how to do something a certain way for seven years," adding that the changes were made to help in "protecting the story for the sake of the audience."

Speculation has surrounded season 5B of "Yellowstone" throughout its troubled production, and it seems even the cast and crew aren't sure how it's all going to play out when it finally premieres on the Paramount Network on November 10, 2024. Surely the biggest question surrounding the season is how the writers have handled Kevin Costner's exit. But until the long-awaited season finally arrives, we'll have to wait to find out along with the rest of the show's cast.