‘Yellowstone’ Season 5: Kevin Costner Weighs in On Those John Dutton Death Rumors

Yellowstone rumors have been circulating online ahead of the highly-anticipated season 5 premiere. Thanks to some big casting news this summer, fans have started speculating about what’s to come. Including the possibility that John Dutton won’t make it out of season 5 alive. But what does star Kevin Costner have to say about those death rumors?

‘Yellowstone’ promoted numerous actors to series regulars ahead of season 5

The upcoming season of Yellowstone will be the biggest one yet. It will feature a total of 14 episodes, and it will be split into two halves with seven episodes each. Ahead of the super-sized season, Taylor Sheridan’s neo-western announced some big casting news that some fans think could be teasing what’s to come.

Wendy Moniz (Governor Lynelle Perry), Mo Brings Plenty (Mo), and Jen Landon (Teeter) have been upped to series regulars. 

Kylie Rogers and Kyle Red Silverstein, who play the younger versions of Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), and Jacki Weaver (Market Equities CEO Caroline Warner) are among the returning recurring cast members. And Josh Lucas will return as the younger version of Costner’s John Dutton — who hasn’t been seen since season 2 flashbacks.

Kevin Costner weighs in on the John Dutton death rumors

When Extra TV asked Kevin Costner what Lucas’ return as the younger John Dutton could mean for the character, the interviewer wondered if it was possible that John could die in season 5. And that prompted a smirk from the two-time Oscar winner.

“Well, I don’t want to die,” Costner replied with a laugh. “There’s just too much to do. In terms of this story, I don’t know where that’s gonna go. I haven’t really thought about that. I mean everybody dies but it’s how you live.”

Costner was also asked about the end of Yellowstone, and if Taylor Sheridan has told him the direction of the story and how it ends. The 67-year-old says that he doesn’t know where the Dutton story is heading because on some level he thinks “we’re making it up even if we say we know.”

“If we say we know it, is that really what it means? I think what comes on the page will be the thing that I look at,” Costner said.

John Dutton has cheated death before in ‘Yellowstone’

If John Dutton does meet his demise in Yellowstone Season 5, it would be an absolute shock to fans. But the character has had a few brushes with death before and so far has managed to survive.

In season 1, John had a tumor burst in his stomach and he had to undergo life-saving surgery at the hands of the ranch’s vet. In the explosive season 3 finale, John was shot after a hit was put out on him, Beth, and Kayce (Luke Grimes). All three Duttons managed to survive, but John had a long road to recovery.

He may have bested his enemies so far, but Costner told Variety that there’s “so much pressure on what’s coming for [John’s] land that he’s going to have to do something.”

“We’re going to see what he did and does to stay ahead of it [in season 5], and I think that’s what John Dutton has to do, but the pressures about the land have been, always for this family, [that they’ve] got to hold on to it with a level of violence,” Costner shared.

Yellowstone Season 5 premieres Sunday, November 13 on the Paramount Network.