Season 6 is reportedly on the table—presumably in addition to The Madison.
This story contains spoilers from season 5, part 2 of Yellowstone.
Forget everything you thought you knew about Yellowstone’s future. The years-long news cycle about rumored spin-offs, Matthew McConaughey–led sequels, and Kevin Costner’s potential return in season 5? That’s all over now. Costner’s character, John Dutton, is dead. In season 5’s midseason premiere, creator Taylor Sheridan promptly threw the fate of the Dutton family into chaos. With just five more episodes left before the season—and maybe the series—ends, anything is possible.
Reportedly, season 6 is even on the table. According to a report from Puck’s Matthew Belloni, Paramount is considering keeping the flagship series going despite billing season 5 as the final one. Variety confirmed the story, including new information that fan favorites Kelly Reilly (Beth Dutton) and Cole Hauser (Rip Wheeler) are currently in talks to return.
Paramount has yet to comment on the rumors. Earlier this fall, the network announced a sequel series titled The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lost’s Matthew Fox as members of a new family, the Clyburns. That news had already opened a can of worms regarding Yellowstone’s future—namely, who the hell are the Clyburns?
For everything we know about Yellowstone season 6, read on below.
Will There Be a Season 6 of Yellowstone?
Possibly! Paramount had previously announced that season 6 was scrapped in favor of a sequel series, which would reportedly star Matthew McConaughey. For whatever reason, McConaughey never officially signed on to the project and/or Paramount moved in another direction. The network is now eyeing select Yellowstone cast members (not named Kevin Costner) to potentially return for another season.
Season 6 would likely run in conjunction with the new spin-off series, The Madison, set to take place in the same universe as Yellowstone but follow an entirely new family named the Clyburns (whose members include Pfeiffer and Fox). Series creator Taylor Sheridan is reportedly also working on a prequel spin-off set in 1944.
Okay, So Where Does the Story Even Go from Here?
In the season 5, part 2 premiere of Yellowstone, John Dutton met his untimely end. A feud between the leading patriarch and Paramount led to Costner exiting the series. He’s now filming his own Western film franchise, titled Horizon. So Sheridan staged an assassination to kill his character off within the first five minutes. As John Dutton lies dead in his bathroom, his children are left to pick up the pieces and move on.
Beth (Reilly) naturally pins the crime on her brother Jamie (Wes Bentley), since he said before the hiatus that he planned to eliminate both his sister and their father. Jamie is only partly to blame, however. His evil girlfriend, Sarah Atwood (Dawn Oliveiri), pulled off the hit. The future isn’t so bright for either of them moving forward, but hope is on the horizon for Beth, her brother Kayce (Luke Grimes), and her husband, Rip.
As fans predicted long before, the family trust also leaves everything to Kayce’s son Tate (Brecken Merrill). Yellowstone fans can’t bring John Dutton back from the dead, but we may still see a beautiful ending for the Dutton family. We just need Paramount to officially tell us WTF is going on.
