Luke Grimes shared his thoughts on whether the series should continue after the finale.
This article contains spoilers from the Season 5 finale.
Being a Yellowstone fan isn’t easy. One moment, you feel thrilled that the series is back, and the next, you wonder how it will all end. Fortunately, creator Taylor Sheridan took a different approach after his cameo-packed episode last week. In the Season 5 finale, he gave fans exactly what they had anticipated. In short, the Dutton family saves the ranch, and Beth (Kelly Reilly) kills Jamie (Wes Bentley). As fans eagerly ask what’s next, a spin-off featuring Beth and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) seems likely.
Although Paramount hasn’t officially confirmed it yet, they could make an announcement at any moment. Over the past few months, speculation shifted from a potential Matthew McConaughey-led sequel to Kevin Costner’s character meeting his end in his own bathroom. Now, instead of McConaughey’s Dutton story, Paramount is developing a new sequel series titled The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lost’s Matthew Fox as part of a new family, the Clyburns. This new development has sparked fresh questions about Yellowstone’s future—mainly, who exactly are the Clyburns?
Luke Grimes (Kayce Dutton) believes that continuing with a sixth season doesn’t make much sense. “I’d do it, [but] I just don’t understand how it would work once the story ends,” the actor tells Esquire. “Kayce wants to cowboy and be happy with his family. He no longer wants to kill people. The weight of a massive, unsustainable mega ranch in today’s world no longer appeals to him. Instead, he seeks his little slice of heaven. It’s that simple.
Is Yellowstone Returning for Season 6?
Paramount initially canceled Yellowstone season 6 to make way for a sequel series, which they expected Matthew McConaughey to star in. However, McConaughey never officially joined the project, prompting Paramount to change its direction. Now, the network is considering bringing back select Yellowstone cast members—excluding Kevin Costner—for a potential spin-off series. Any new show featuring returning cast members could essentially become Yellowstone season 6 under a different name. Meanwhile, series creator Taylor Sheridan is reportedly working on a prequel spin-off set in 1944.
Okay, so where does the story 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 off his character 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 had planned before the hiatus to eliminate both his sister and their father. However, Jamie is only partly to blame. His evil girlfriend, Sarah Atwood (Dawn Oliveiri), orchestrated the hit. While the future didn’t look so bright for Atwood, hope appeared on the horizon for Beth, her brother Kayce, and her husband, Rip. Yellowstone fans can’t bring John Dutton back from the dead, but we still saw a beautiful ending for the Dutton family in the finale.
Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) purchased the ranch and turned it into a wildlife preserve. The Dutton Family Ranch is now part of the Native American reservation, with space for Kayce and his family to tend a small herd. Meanwhile, Beth and Rip bought a new ranch outside Dillon, Montana. Sheridan wrapped everything up fairly neatly. The only new Yellowstone-adjacent project teased during the season 5 finale was 1923 season 2. If there’s more story to tell, it’s up to Sheridan to figure it out. We just need Paramount to officially tell us what’s going on.
List of Yellowstone episodes
Yellowstone is an American neo-Western drama television series created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson. It premiered on June 20, 2018, on Paramount Network. The series stars Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, and Gil Birmingham. It follows the conflicts along the shared borders of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, a large cattle ranch, the Broken Rock Indian reservation, Yellowstone National Park, and land developers.
The network renewed the series for a fifth season, splitting it into two installments. The first part, consisting of eight episodes, aired from November 13, 2022, and ended on January 1, 2023. The second part of the fifth and final season premiered on November 10, 2024.
Throughout the series, 53 episodes of Yellowstone aired across five seasons, from June 20, 2018, to December 15, 2024.
