speaking in a yellow stone panel on Saturday night, Keith Cox, Paramount Network’s president of development and production, addressed the elephant in the room about star Kevin Costner’s future with the show.
“What I can say is that our star, the face of our show and the executive producer, are very confident that he will continue with our show,” Cox told the crowd at the Dolby Theater, in front of hundreds of fans who expressed enthusiasm. . answer.
In February, it was reported that the network could seek to end yellow stone sooner rather than later due to scheduling battles with Costner, who plays patriarch John Dutton and reportedly demanded to only work for a week in the second half of season five. The first half of the season aired its midseason finale on January 1 and is set to return for the second half this summer. The episode set up a life-threatening battle between Costner’s character and his daughter, played by Wes Bentley.
It has also been revealed that Matthew McConaughey will star in a yellow stone spin-off series from creator Taylor Sheridan regardless of Costner’s role in the series.
At the time the news about Costner’s future broke, the Paramount Network issued this statement: “We have no news to report. Kevin Costner is a big part of yellow stone, and we hope that this will be the case for a long time. Thanks to the brilliant mind of Taylor Sheridan, we’re always working on franchise expansions to this amazing world that he’s built. Matthew McConaughey is a phenomenal talent that we would love to partner with.”
The Saturday night panel was originally scheduled to feature Costner, Sheridan, and co-stars Bentley, Kelly Reilly, Cole Hauser, Luke Grimes, Kelsey Asbille, Gil Birmingham, Jacki Weaver, and executive producer David Glasser. However, just hours before the event, the lineup completely changed, replaced by Cox, Moses Brings Plenty, Dawn Olivieri, Josh Lucas, and Wendy Moniz.
speaking to the hollywood reporter on the red carpet about the Costner situation, Plenty said he’s “not worried about anything” because “the right people (are) in charge” of the series. He continued: “Kevin is a huge part of the show and I hope he continues to be for a long time.”
Moniz said that “it’s been interesting” to navigate the uncertain state of the show, saying, “Basically, we’ve been waiting and listening and looking forward to getting back to work.”
Olivieri, who plays astute corporate shark and newcomer Sarah, said of the possibility of the show coming to an end sooner rather than later: “I think Taylor will write the roller coaster, I can trust him to do it. Because why else are you writing? Are you writing to make everyone feel happy and feel good about what you just did to them? That’s not why we see Taylor Sheridan stuff. We see it because we’re like (gasps) ‘I can’t believe that just happened.’ How could he do that?'”
The actress, who previously played Claire Dutton on the yellow stone limited prequel show 1883he quipped, “Names will change, appeal factors will change, Matthew McConaugheys will show up, he’ll be whatever he needs to be.”
During the panel, Lucas spoke of the show’s enduring popularity — the ranch-set drama counts Jennifer Lopez among its legions of fans — as an example of how coastal cities tend to discount the vibrancy and diversity offered by the central United States. Joined.
“I think people wanted to reduce the show to a specific white male, American, Western iconographic view of what’s going on right now with the divide in this country, and actually, the show presents a lot of contradictory ideas at the same time. That’s why I think the show is actually about America instead of a red state,” he said. “He is presenting too many different points of view at the same time, and they collide, and they are alive, and the problem with what the coasts do to central America is that they reduce it to a singular idea. This show is about family, it’s about love, and it’s about an idea of America, both past and present and future.”
