Photo: Dominik Bindl/Getty Images
Let me make one thing perfectly clear: Kevin Costner is a movie star, okay? Between launching his own epic western-film franchise Horizon this year, having conversations with Jewel, whispering with his beautiful boy son, and being divorced, his stint playing the lead role of John Dutton in Yellowstone — TV’s biggest horseback-riding drama — is just one small chapter in a 46-year career that’s intrinsic to what we think of when we think of Hollywood. Despite being permanently famous, he came out swinging against rumors that he’d abandoned the Dutton family to prioritize his Horizon movies, reiterating to Howard Stern as recently as June 18 that he would go back to that guy Taylor Sheridan’s first big TV hit if they could get the story line, scripts, and schedule to work. But, then, two days later, Yellowstone confirmed its final episodes would premiere on Paramount November 10. Costner did not issue a statement. Instead, he took to the medium of film (Instagram) to explain exactly what this means for his return.
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It opens on what we can assume is a hedge in or around a parking lot behind a production office somewhere in Southern California. Before us stands the star, speaking into a phone camera with a lens so smudged it gives his white half-zip an otherworldly glow. The monologue begins subtly enough, channeling the flatness of an email sent as a professional courtesy: “Hi, everyone, I just wanna reach out and let you know.” Costner folds his hands under his arms as he speaks about Yellowstone as “that beloved series” with his elbows pointed down, a defensive posture that also communicates sorrow like he’s about to remove his team’s pitcher.
“I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue season 5B or into the future.” Costner, like all great artists, knows to play the pauses. He hesitates after the word “continue,” creating space for the viewer to be shocked and separating the phrase “season 5B” so we can all appreciate the absurdity of a production schedule that needs to letter its seasons.
“It was something that really changed … me,” he continues, with another well-placed hesitation to underscore all that he is leaving unsaid. “I loved it, and I know you loved it, and I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning.” Not Deadline, not Variety, no, the filmmaker isn’t interested in issuing statements to media outlets like some streamer. He is a real man and a real star coming directly to you, the audience who wept during Field of Dreams, watched him drink his own urine in Waterworld, sat through all four hours of Dances With Wolves. “I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop,” he says, his tone daring each and every Yellowstone fan to turn off their silly baby TVs and return to the grown-up world of movie theaters. There’s mild aggression here but also the hope that the end of “peak TV” could mean the return of cinema, of people riding horses and shooting guns on really big screens. Costner closes his message with a sly smile and a simple directive: “I’ll see you at the movies.” It’s a much cooler, movie-star way of reminding us that Horizon: An American Saga hits theaters June 28.
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