Warning: This article contains spoilers for Yellowstone Season 5John Dutton’s fate had been uncertain ever since news of Kevin Costner’s departure from Yellowstone first broke, but his passing still stunned viewers. When Yellowstone returned for its (supposedly) concluding episodes earlier this month, Costner’s beloved character was quickly killed off. Series fans took to social media to express their anger and disappointment with the show’s farewell to John. Despite fan opinions, however, some of those closest to the series think that his death shouldn’t be that shocking. Director Christina Voros and actor Luke Grimes have recently shared their thoughts on John Dutton’s final chapter.
According to Voros, who was at the helm of several Yellowstone episodes, including “Desire Is All You Need,” where John dies, the audience reaction was “strange” given that it was known Costner would not return to the series (via The Hollywood Reporter). She explained:
I was reading Twitter and it’s strange the number of people who seemed upset that John Dutton was killed off, despite knowing that Kevin himself said he wasn’t coming back to the show.
Christina Voros added:
“I think even in the face of that information, people don’t want it to be true. And in a weird way, it’s life imitating art. There were a lot of people who were outraged that John was killed — and you’re supposed to be outraged he was killed. The characters are outraged that he’s killed. So in a strange way, it is the point. You are not supposed to be okay with it.”
Luke Grimes Defends John Dutton’s Shocking Death
In an interview with PEOPLE, Grimes, who has starred in the series as Kayce Dutton, John’s youngest son, since its 2018 premiere, said that John’s sudden demise highlighted the unexpected nature of death, sparking real life emotions:
If it happened in such a shocking, quick way, that’s how life works, right? I mean, when you lose people, it’s sometimes not how you planned and not when you think it’s going to be.
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“There’s been some negative reactions. I think they feel sort of cheated,” admitted Grimes, who also revealed that not only was John’s exit from the series always part of the plan, but that audiences likely saw more of the character than was initially anticipated:
“And what I would say to that is, I think we were all lucky to have Kevin on the show as long as we did.
It was always the plan for him to have to go away for the story to really ramp up
, and that was the story. You lose a patriarch of the family. Can the kids do it on their own? […]
I think originally he was supposed to die much earlier
. So, in a way, they got way more of John Dutton than they were going to originally get. I would keep that in mind.”
Following the release of “Desire Is All You Need,” which marks the Part 2 premiere of the show’s ongoing fifth season, Costner said he had not seen the episode and that hearing that his character had died by suicide didn’t make him “wanna rush to go see it.” Costner also speculated that John’s death could be a “red herring,” and as viewers now know, it turns out that John’s demise was not a result of suicide after all. Costner famously exited Yellowstone after scheduling conflicts interfered with his passion project, the film series Horizon: An American Saga; the first part of that Western epic is available to stream on Max.
Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Paramount Network. The final episode is set to air on December 15, 2024.
