Taylor Sheridan is breaking his silence about Kevin Costner leaving Yellowstone. After years of drama behind the scenes, Sheridan is finally sharing his side.
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Speaking on the "Bill Simmons Podcast," Sheridan claims that Costner was only supposed to appear in the first three seasons of the show. Sheridan planned to pass the torch to the next generation. But the network got scared even though Costner was growing tired of the show.
"That was in his contract. In my mind, that's when his youngest son takes over [on the show]... But the network was so scared of not having Kevin be a part of it, even though Kevin was ready," he explained. "He was ready to go. He had other things he wanted to do, but he stayed on for another two seasons."
Costner reluctantly stayed on the show, according to Sheridan.
Taylor Sheridan Talks Kevin Costner
He explained, "It was such a huge hit. The notion of giving up a hit before it had run out of juice to squeeze is very foreign to a network. There was even pressure from some of the cable companies wanting to put it in their deals, that they were going to get an X-number of seasons of Yellowstone to re-up what this cable company is. That's the power of a really big hit show."
However, Costner left the show and things went south behind the scenes. Sheridan says that Costner had a project he was passionate about.
"My last conversation with Kevin was that he had this passion project he wanted to direct," Sheridan said. "He and the network were arguing about when he could be done with 'Yellowstone.' I said, 'We can certainly work a schedule toward [his preferred exit date],' which we did."
"His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful ... and I've never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn't work out on the phone," Sheridan said.
He continued: "But once lawyers get involved, then people don't get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren't true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don't know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him, and he wants to shift focus."
