‘Yellowstone’: Kevin Costner Says He’s Taken “A F*cking Beating” & Hold Hope For “Maybe” A Sixth Season

Filmmaker/actor Kevin Costner is about to unleash his epic passion project, Civil War-era set, “Horizons: An American Saga,” at the Cannes Film Festival this month. ‘Part One,’ which is over 3 hours (181 minutes in total), will open in theaters in July, and ‘Part Two’ is scheduled for August, both by Warner Bros, taking a big bet on the Academy Award-winning director. But what’s going on with all the ongoing “Yellowstone” drama?

In a pretty fascinating, somewhat combative, and sprawling Q&A with Deadline, Costner says… well, all kinds of things, really, and attempts to tell his side of the drama. For starters, however, the filmmaker says ‘Horizons: Part One’ is actually shorter than the official three hours listed on the Cannes website—2 hr 50 minutes by his estimation (“Got to 2:50, now I’m at 2:45, but I’m going to put some back,” he said for anyone keep tracking of length).

READ MORE: Kevin Costner Wants To Return To ‘Yellowstone’: “I Thought I Was Going To Make Seven” Seasons

Costner also vows to make ‘Horizon Part Three & Four,’ though he admits their shooting schedule has been pushed many times now (“I wanted to start April 25th, but I’ve got to find the money. I wanted to start May 6th, but I needed to find the money. I’ve moved myself to May 13th, and I’m going to start my movie. I don’t give a sh*t now. I’m just going to start it,” he said. But clearly, he will be busy at Cannes for a while with promotion).

As for how much he’s spent of his own money, he says by the end of four movies, he’ll be at $100 million, which feels a little low, but presumably, he hasn’t paid for every dime, hence finding the money comment. “I’m on schedule right now at $98 million, and when I do the fourth film, it will push me over $100 million,” he explained).

When it came to talking “Yellowstone,” hold on because the conversation gets a little bit more contentious, and it’s a bit like a bucky bronco in that it’s hard to stay on and follow in its entirety, but one of the biggest takeaways is that Costner says he’s taken a “f*cking beating” in the press from “those guys” presumably meaning “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan, the 101 Studios producers, and Paramount.

“I don’t want to get down in the gutter with the Yellowstone thing, but what I’m telling you is straight up. I have taken a beating from those f*cking guys, and I know a lot of times where it’s coming from. I just elected not to get into that. But if you know me well enough, I made ‘Yellowstone’ the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong,” he explained.

“I did not initiate any of those things,” he said of many of the behind-the-scenes dramas and decision to end the show after season five. “They did. They were doing a tap dance, and this poor guy [Sheridan] was also having to write so much. And I don’t know why they didn’t stick up for me. You asked me the question; I’m going to answer it. I don’t do press outside my movies. I don’t live in the press, in between. Now, I’m promoting my movie. I could say “no comment” all the way through. I won’t say my life is fair game or that any questions are fair game, but this is a realistic question. I will address it. They should have known that there was going to be an opportunity for me to say something. I didn’t have to answer the slings and arrows over the last year and a half because I’ve just been busy working. They’ve been pretty slick about keeping their hands off; nobody was ever on the record.”

For those that need a recap, Sheridan and Paramount announced last year that “Yellowstone” was coming to an end after the completion of the second part of season five, which Costner refers to as “5B” throughout the interview.

His main point of contention is that he had signed on for seven seasons, and Paramount wants to cut everything short at five. And for all intents and purposes, they have even announced a spin-off (working title, “Yellowstone 2024” that is reported to star Matthew McConaughey). The studio’s contention, made in various reports through the press, was that Costner’s shooting schedule became so difficult—because he was starring in and directing ‘Horizon’—  making it impossible for the show to go on that they basically threw up their hands, said “f*ck this,” and decide to just end things early and move on with a similar, but different show that he wouldn’t be part of.  

But in the interview, Costner still hopes out for maybe a sixth season.

“I haven’t felt good about it the last year, what with the way they’ve talked about it. It wasn’t truthful,” he said about all the rumors and reports of disputes. “So now I’m talking about a little bit about what the real truth of it was. I made a contract for seasons five, six, and seven. In February, after a two-or three-month negotiation, they made another contract. They wanted to redo that one, and instead of seasons six and seven, it was 5A and 5B, and maybe we’ll do six. They weren’t able to make those. ‘Horizon’ was set in the middle, but ‘Yellowstone’ was in first position. I fit [‘Horizon’] into the gaps. They just kept moving their gaps.”

As for some of the delays, Costner often says, “There was no script. And then things imploded. You’ve been reading one version [of this behind-the-scenes drama] for a year and a half. I left my movie to be on time for them for 5B. I left exactly when they wanted, and it made it hard on me. It turns out they didn’t have the scripts for 5B. They needed four more days just to complete the first eight episodes.”

“There were no scripts,” he continued in another section of the interview, ping-ponging back and forth between ‘Horizon’ and “Yellowstone” a little discursively.  “I said, ‘Look, if you want to end this elegantly, the best I can do is give you a week. And if you can figure out a storyline…” I’m usually working six or seven days per each, whatever they are. And they took that, and a source on their side spun that into, well, “He only wants to work a week for a whole season.’ Do you think that’s who I am? I’ve never missed a day of work. I’ve never left before fulfilling my contractual obligations. A lot of times, I stay as much as I can. In fact, I worked the nine-day stretch just to try to help them in July, when I was starting [‘Horizon’] on August 1. I worked a Saturday and Sunday for them, and they still needed four more days. I gave it to them when I thought we were going to do this so-called B, but there was no B thing.”

Costner talked about the 14-month gap between “Yellowstone” Season 5A and the still-unfished 5B, which is supposed to air this fall, but it’s unclear if they’ve even started production yet.

“Didn’t have the scripts. And they wrote these other three shows. They don’t ever talk about that. And all they did was remember we were releasing the series in June; then it moved to October. They covered this by changing their release pattern. That time was about a 14-month period. I said, ‘I can’t ever go through that again, where you shut down for over a year, and I don’t have something in line to do.’ All I did was protect myself, but I didn’t put myself in first position over ‘Yellowstone.’ I filled [in] the gaps. Do you see that?”

The timeline of it all is a mess, and the he/said of it all continues like much of that throughout the interview, but the writer/director/star still says he’s open for more despite some of the hurt he received in the press.

“I’m very open to coming back,” he remarked. “If they’ve got so many other things going on, maybe this circles back and it’s a really cool two seasons. Or end it, if the writing’s there and I’m happy with it. I’m open to that. But I took a beating over these guys not speaking up for me and allowing crazy stories to come out. I didn’t do ‘Horizon’ because I was tired of doing ‘Yellowstone.’ That’s a bullsh*t story…It’s just that simple: Paramount and 101 Studios mismanaged this.”

Ironically enough, much of this could be much ado about nothing. Paramount and 101 Studios have already announced their plan, and unless they’re secretly changing their mind, Costner can explain his side of the story all he wants, but it might just be far too late.

Things have certainly been quiet on that front, however. Last we heard the “Yellowstone” stars were all trying to make new deals for the new show and perhaps demanding too much money in the process, but it’s Paramount’s biggest hit series, and it’s been off the air now since January 2023, the date when the last 5A episode premiered. Presumably everyone wants this gravy train to move forward, but as of right now, all we know officially is “Yellowstone” is supposed to air 5B and then pivot to this new series. If they can keep that timeline, great, but things have been tremendously quiet for a long time now.

Here are two new clips from “Horizon” (one below, one on the Cannes site) and the most recent trailer. “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” opens in theaters June 28.