***Yellowstone **season 5 continued its second half after Kevin Costner quit, but Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western still could have continued to show John Dutton III. Costner exited one of television’s biggest shows *during the interim of filming *Yellowstone *season 5, which premiered in two parts. The Academy Award-winner left Yellowstone due to filming delays and his desire to direct his pet project, Horizon: An American Saga.
For better or worse, Taylor Sheridan’s response to his lead actor quitting* Yellowston*e was to kill off John Dutton. Kayce (Luke Grimes) and Beth Dutton’s (Kelly Reilly) investigation into their father’s death and the siblings’ final decision about the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch’s fate became the focus of *Yellowstone *season 5, part 2.
John Dutton did appear in Yellowstone’s remaining half-dozen episodes, but a body double for Kevin Costner portrayed John before and after he was murdered by hitmen hired by Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri). Otherwise, there was no sighting of Kevin Costner beyond family photos of John in* Yellowstone* season 5, part 2. Yet it also didn’t have to be this way.
Yellowstone season 5, part 2 could have still included John Dutton in flashbacks. Josh Lucas shared the role of John Dutton with Kevin Costner throughout Yellowstone’s five seasons. Lucas portrayed the younger, angrier, mustachioed John III, who mourns his late wife, Evelyn (Gretchen Mol), in Yellowstone’s flashbacks set in the 1990s.
Yellowstone Needs Taylor Sheridan’s Most Heroic Dutton To Come Back ](/yellowstone-spencer-dutton-1923-spinoff-need-comeback/)
Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone franchise is undergoing a resurgence with new spinoffs, but it won’t be complete until one Dutton hero returns.
Josh Lucas appeared in nine episodes of* Yellowstone* as the younger John Dutton. Like Kevin Costner, Lucas’ final appearance as John was in *Yellowstone *season 5, episode 8, “A Knife and No Coin.” Lucas’ last flashback scene saw young Rip Wheeler (Kyle Red Silverstein) accept the Yellowstone brand and commit himself to the Dutton Ranch.
As he told Deadline in 2022, Josh Lucas was among the first actors hired for Yellowstone, but Taylor Sheridan told him that the younger John Dutton would be seen the most in Yellowstone season 5. Indeed, Lucas played John in five episodes of Yellowstone season 5, part 1.
Had Kevin Costner ridden Yellowstone to the end, Josh Lucas would likely have also continued playing the younger John Dutton in more flashbacks. It stands to reason that when Taylor Sheridan had to revamp his plan for Yellowstone’s final six episodes, he decided that excising all of Costner’s scenes also meant losing Lucas in flashbacks.
The result is Josh Lucas’ John Dutton making an abrupt exit after Yellowstone season 5, episode 8. There’s a lingering feeling that there was supposed to be more to come with John in the 1990s that wasn’t realized. Taylor Sheridan could still have had Josh Lucas portray the younger John, but perhaps he felt that this would have diminished the loss and impact of the Dutton patriarch’s death.
Yellowstone season 5, part 2 simply could not overcome the loss of Kevin Costner as John Dutton, even as the final six episodes focused on Kayce, Beth, Rip (Cole Hauser), and the Yellowstone’s cowboys mourning John, as well as the reveal of Jamie Dutton’s (Wes Bentley) complicity in Governor Dutton’s death.
Taylor Sheridan used many tricks to distract from the absence of Kevin Costner (and John Lucas), including splitting the narrative to jump between the events before and after John Dutton’s death in Yellowstone’s timeline. Sheridan even expanded his own role as horse trainer Travis Wheatley. Both stunts were controversial with viewers.
It’s hard to argue that Yellowstone’s final episodes were somehow better because John Dutton wasn’t there.
Flashing back to Josh Lucas as John Dutton in *Yellowstone *season 5, part 2 might have enhanced the magnitude of his death two decades later. At the very least, audiences could have closure on John’s issues with wolves plaguing the Yellowstone in the 1990s. It’s hard to argue that Yellowstone’s final episodes were somehow better because John Dutton wasn’t there.
Without Kevin Costner as the center of Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan refocused on Beth and Kayce, laying the groundwork for their spinoffs, CBS’ *Marshals *and Paramount+‘s The Dutton Ranch, respectively. Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, and Cole Hauser all stepped up and proved worthy of carrying their own *Yellowstone *series.
The ultimate fate of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch was also a logical resolution. However, audiences will always wonder how everything would have played out if Kevin Costner had finished ***Yellowstone, ***and whatever Taylor Sheridan originally planned as John Dutton’s conclusion had played out.
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Taylor Sheridan