Kevin Costner Reacts to His ‘Yellowstone’ Character’s Fate

Kevin Costner just found out Monday morning how Yellowstone got rid of his character after his long-awaited exit from the show, and what he heard “doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it.”

Fans have been waiting for this premiere since Costner officially announced his exit from the show on Instagram over the summer during its two-year hiatus. But during an interview on SiriusXM’s The Michael Smerconish Program, Costner said he hadn’t yet seen the ‘Part 2’ premiere of the show’s fifth season released Sunday because he “didn’t know it was actually airing last night.”

“I heard it’s a suicide,” he said, explaining why he feels there’s no “rush” to watch the episode.

He also said that with the minds behind the production, his character’s suicide could be a “red herring. Who knows? They’re very good.”

Despite the rumored contentious relationship between Costner and the show’s writer-creator Taylor Sheridan, he defended the show from fan backlash over how his character was written-off. “They’re smart people,” Costner said of the creatives behind the show, “Whatever they’re doing, they’ll figure it out.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Costner denied “quitting” the show.

Costner said on Instagram in June that he “realized that I’m not going to be able to continue season 5B or into the future,” even though “I loved it and I know [fans] loved it.”

“I didn’t leave,” he said during the interview, suggesting that schedule changes essentially forced him to leave. “Finally when they wanted to change [the schedule] a third time, because I had my obligations to do, I had 300 people waiting for me, I couldn’t help them anymore,” he said, referring to his flop multi-part Western passion project Horizon. “I just simply couldn’t help them,” he said, “But I didn’t quit the show. “