As we’ve reiterated more times, we care to count in print and on our Yellowstoners podcast, its writer/director/showrunner/exec Taylor Sheridan’s world, and we’re just living in it. At least when it comes to the world of Paramount+, which is the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter turned TV-dynasty-empire-mogul’s domain. Sheridan’s the creative mind behind Paramount’s “Yellowstone,” currently the most successful and popular show on linear television; it’s spawned three spin-offs, at least three more in the works, and he currently has at least two shows on Paramount+ (“Mayor Of Kingtown,” “The Tulsa King”) and at least three more coming (one is “Lioness” with Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman.
‘Yellowstone’: Taylor Sheridan Laughs When People Call His Western Series A “Republican Show”
So what’s next for an encore? Apparently, he is ending his most popular show and charting a new extension. Deadline reports that Sheridan, Paramount Global, and Paramount Network are moving towards ending the show but charting an extension series that will continue the Dutton family saga, but this time starring Matthew McConaughey.
There is Peter Dutton, but he apparently died just a few days after he was born, so we’d have to scratch that one; maybe someone else buying the land?
Evidently, part of the problem is Kevin Costner and disagreements over his schedule. Deadline reports that Costner, who had originally limited himself to 65 days of shooting on “Yellowstone,” only wanted to shoot for 50 days for the first part of the current season.
Paramount tried to pooh-pooh the report, neither denying nor confirming anything.
“We have no news to report. Kevin Costner is a big part of Yellowstone, and we hope that’s the case for a long time to come. Thanks to the brilliant mind of Taylor Sheridan, we are always working on franchise expansions of this incredible world he has built. Matthew McConaughey is a phenomenal talent with whom we’d love to partner,” a Paramount Network spokesperson told Deadline.
The fact that Paramount is willing to acknowledge McConaughey probably means nothing is concrete, but talks have at least started. It also sounds like Sheridan and the Paramount co. are either trying to a) force Costner’s hand and or b) have had enough and are moving towards an alternative solution.
And why would Kevin Costner self-destruct his own meal ticket? Well, maybe he was under the illusion that he had more power than he did, and or he’s 68 years old and maybe has adopted much of John Dutton’s DGAF attitude.
This might be what the show needed, frankly. As we wrote in our season five review, “Yellowstone” “remains edible, but how long can the meat and potatoes last?” I.e., this is an entertaining but very conventional show that’s repeating itself, and how long can they keep repeating themselves?
Probably not helping matters is that Costner has been prepping and planning to direct an epic two-part movie, and that might be conflicting with the schedule of the series that shoots often and many months of the year. Costner is planning on helming the multi-part western epic “Horizon,” which he co-wrote with Jon Baird that landed at Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line. 
Deadline says the film and the schedule issues have been “causing morale issues” with the rest of the cast. Worse, apparently, Costner and his team made some kind of proposal, but Paramount rejected it, and a decision has already been made to move on to the other show. McConaughey is apparently already in negotiations which might just mean the show, as we know it, is being taken off to pasture soon.
This extensive report also says the “new project is way more than just talk, borne out of the continued disagreements over the lessening amount time Costner is willing to spend shooting the series.”
What’s even more shocking is Deadline says “Yellowstone” may end with the second half of the current season, which means part two of “Yellowstone” season five would be the end of it all. Surely, more drama is to come, so stay tuned. Unless the outlet is dead wrong, this one sounds like a done deal, people.