Yellowstone Star Spoils the Most Crucial Thing About Series Finale

Summary:

• Kevin Costner, the Yellowstone lead star, notoriously left the series after a scheduling conflict with showrunner Taylor Sheridan.
• Kelly Reilly, the Beth Dutton actress, has recently claimed that the TV show’s finale hasn’t been changed since she read it in 2018.
• The implication of Reilly’s words is that Costner’s John Dutton has been doomed from the start and that’s why the lead star isn’t needed now.

Yellowstone has been one of the world’s biggest TV shows for over four years now, but it ran into a wall after showrunner Taylor Sheridan and lead star Kevin Costner’s conflict. Having portrayed John Dutton, the main character and the on-screen patriarch of the series for three years, Costner backed out of the project, leaving his co-stars and viewers alike hanging.

There were rumors of Sheridan having to drastically change the script after Costner’s exit and rewriting the finale — but apparently, the ending remained virtually intact.

Kelly Reilly Is Excited About the Yellowstone Finale

The Beth Dutton actress Kelly Reilly has been one of Yellowstone’s core cast members since day one, and this show was a huge milestone for her. These days, Reilly is working tirelessly on the series’ finale with her co-stars, and she’s genuinely excited to see fans’ reaction. According to the actress, the ending will be amazing.

“I'm looking forward to giving [the fans] the ending of Yellowstone that was always the ending of Yellowstone back when I signed on in 2018 — so it's like... It's gonna be wild. <...> I'm just looking forward to finishing the show for them in the way that the audience deserves, because the fans of the show have been incredible and so loyal,” Reilly told Radio Times.

The actress specifically highlighted that the finale remained unchanged despite all the turmoil and uncertainty of the past months. She wanted to highlight that fact.

How Can the Show’s Finale Be the Same without Costner?

Seeing how Kevin Costner’s John Dutton has always been the central figure in the series, Kelly Reilly’s recent revelation begs for the most obvious question: how can the Yellowstone finale possibly remain unchanged without the show’s lead star? Honestly, there’s only one possible scenario that fits such a narrative in our book.

If John Dutton’s fate was sealed from the start, then Kevin Costner’s on-screen presence will not matter much. The Dutton patriarch has many enemies, both in politics and in… The usual stuff. Should Taylor Sheridan have planned for John to be killed or imprisoned, then bypassing Costner’s absence will not be a huge problem.

Otherwise, there’s next to no way for the ending to have remained the same.

Source: Radio Times