Yellowstone's Gil Birmingham Has One Condition To Return As Thomas Rainwater

"Yellowstone," the improbable cultural phenomenon seemingly no one (but your dad) is talking about yet everyone in America is watching, is finally back for the second half of season 5, which kicked off with a shocking character death that's making fans furious. (Spoiler in that link, natch).

Created by Taylor Sheridan, "Yellowstone" follows the Duttons, a dynasty that owns the largest ranch in America, as they deal with threats to their property, particularly tensions with the nearby Broken Rock Indian Reservation, the Yellowstone National Park, and developers working the land around the ranch. With season 5 soon coming to an end, many fans are wondering if this will, in fact, be the end of the Duttons for real. With no official word on a sixth season for the time being, Paramount has instead announced a new "Yellowstone" spinoff starring Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfeiffer.

As we wait to see how the rest of season 5B plays without Kevin Costner, fans will merely have to wonder how their favorite characters will fare in the remaining episodes — and, as such, whether they could return for the potential "Yellowstone" season 6. That goes double for the Duttons' biggest rival; I'm referring, of course, to Thomas Rainwater, played by Gil Birmingham.

In an interview with The Playlist, Birmingham said he would be game for returning to a future "Yellowstone" project, under one condition. "I love this character, I absolutely would," Birmingham said. "I think we all would. We've talked about what we would do pretty much across the board, everyone of the actors said, 'We would do this thing as long as Taylor wanted to write for it."

Thomas Rainwater is the High Chief of the Confederated Tribes of Broken Rock and the wealthy owner of the Grey Wolf Peak Casino. He has made his entire life's mission to elevate his people and bring back generational wealth to them, taking back the land stolen from them — which puts him in direct conflict with John Dutton. This is an aspect of the show that has always been there, but has been kind of ignored as of late, particularly in the first half of season 5 (which gave Thomas Rainwater very little to do).

Birmingham isn't giving up, however. In an interview with Radio Times, the actor expressed interest in starring in a spin-off show centered around his character and Moses Brings Plenty's Mo, which is reasonable given just how many spin-offs there already are for this franchise. "Well, it might be a personal bias, but I think it would be a wonderful spin-off," the actor explained. "And there's been discussion, you know, between me and Mo, my partner in this, to explore the Native side of [the] story and what would be going on in the on the reservation, and what the challenges are for that community. I'd love to see that. But, you know, I'm not the writer."

New episodes of "Yellowstone" premiere Sundays on Paramount Network.