Here’s what Kevin Costner, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, and more have said about the fate of the Dutton patriarch.
In the first episode of Yellowstone season five, part two, the show kills off John Dutton.
“It’s so weird to talk about it all, because it has been so clandestine for so long,” executive producer and Christina Voros told The Hollywood Reporter after the episode aired. On set, she said, “we didn’t talk about it as a death. Any time there is a death or some sort of event, we called it an ‘arrival.’ And we gave John’s character a pseudonym. We called him ‘Crosby.’ We were calling the opening scene, ‘Beth discovers that Crosby has arrived.’ It was on call sheets and the crew were like, ‘Who is Crosby? And, where’s he coming from?’ I did some random research: [John Schuyler] Crosby was the last governor of Montana before Montana was turned into a state, in the 1880s. It was a very random, obscure, esoteric reference [by Taylor Sheridan].”
She added, “I think Taylor’s decision to begin this way was incredibly brave. I think it is testament to his faith in the characters and the actors who embody them to go, ‘Let’s not make this about the incident. Let’s make this about how these human beings exist in the aftermath.’ That was more interesting to [Taylor] than the incident itself.”
Here, what the Yellowstone cast has said about John Dutton’s death:
Kevin Costner (John Dutton)
Costner, who did not return for season five, part two, hasn’t watched the episode yet. “I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it,” he said the day after the premiere. When the interviewer says John Dutton doesn’t seem like he’d die by suicide, Costner replies, “Well, they’re pretty smart people. Maybe it’s a red herring. Who knows? They’re very good. And they’ll figure that out.”
Kelly Reilly (Beth Dutton)
“The way that Taylor [Sheridan] has ended this season is the way he always intended it to,” Reilly said. “So, there was a small pivot that it had to happen sooner, but it then energized us creatively.”
Luke Grimes (Kayce Dutton)
John Dutton’s death “launches [the story] forward with rocket fuel, is what it does. It’s an event that starts… it’s the beginning of the end,” Grimes said.
Kelsey Asbille (Monica Dutton)
Of not having Costner on set anymore, Asbille said, “He’s such an important part of the show and created such an iconic character, so in that way, I think it was really special in the time that we did have with him. And then moving forward, his absence was always a part of the story. And like Luke said, it really pushes us forward, and wraps up a lot of the questions we’ve been asking since season one.”
Wes Bentley (Jamie Dutton)
“I won’t say too much about how it impacts this season, just because, for the fans, I don’t want to spoil it,” he told ScreenRant. “So, I won’t say much to that, but with TV, you’re always kind of prepared for something big like that. Your big star might be gone all of a sudden, or the show might be cancelled, or you might be killed off. [Laughs] So, you’re always kind of ready for that big change to happen, and you just enjoy all the experiences in the moment, because you never know what’s coming around the corner. But I’ll just say about Kevin that he, obviously, is a big part of the show, and he’s been amazing, and is a great guy, a great actor to work with. I’m just so happy that I got a chance to do so.”
Gil Birmingham (Chief Thomas Rainwater)
“There’s so many different dynamics that occur that I’m not privy to,” Birmingham said of John Dutton’s death to kick off this season. “You know, we get redacted scripts, so I’m not sure what the family is doing, or any of the other actors and their storylines. I only know the scenes that I worked on. But aside from that, John and I, or John and Rainwater, would generally have maybe one scene per season, and a lot of the rest of it was the build up to that, or the backstory of what the confrontation was going to lead them into their finally meeting face to face to have a discussion about it.”
He continued, “Where we left it off last season, it seemed like there was more they had in common than not. As governor, he was trying to stop the pipeline and informing people that this could be detrimental to the land, so we’ve always had a respect for each other in terms of the sacredness of land, just for different reasons. His is a legacy of family, of ownership, and mine is ancestral. And that’s, I think, what creates great drama.”
