Luke Grimes makes awkward U-turn over Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone departure and teases season 5 ending

Luke Grimes has made an awkward U-turn over Kevin Costner’s departure from their hit show, Yellowstone.

The actor, 40, who plays Costner’s onscreen son Kayce Dutton in the show, previously branded the icon’s acrimonious exit from the show ‘unfortunate’ – but now says the show ‘works’ without his character John Dutton.

Yellowstone’s fifth season part two will finally premiere November 10 – without Costner, 69.

Grimes told Newsweek: ‘I just feel like it would be unfair of me to kind of talk about any of that because, you know, [the show] was seven years long and there’s so many things that happened that I know about and so many things that happen that I don’t know about.

‘I don’t have the bird’s eye view of that whole situation, you know? All I know is what happened, happened, and the show rolled with the punches.

Grimes plays the role of Kayce Dutton on Yellowstone, the son of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III character

‘We were able to finish the show and finish it in a way that I think is really gonna work for everybody, even in the midst of all that.’

Teasing the hotly-anticipated season five ending, he said: ‘I think it’ll just be very satisfying because it’s, I mean, that’s what you want. That’s what you want. And the ending of a great show is something unpredictable and satisfying.’

Back in April Grimes said of Costner’s exit amid a rumored feud with showrunner Taylor Sheridan:  ‘Whatever happened there is unfortunate if it’s changed anything about how the show was going to unfold, per The Independent.

The Dayton, Ohio native has appeared on 47 episodes of the hit Western series created by Sheridan, 53, and aired on Paramount Network.

Grimes, alluding to Costner’s two-part Western drama Horizon, said that the Oscar-winner ‘got busy with his movies that were like passion projects,’ and it’s understandable why he might choose to shift gears.

‘At a certain point, you gotta do what you gotta do, man; you gotta do what you love,’ he said.

Costner departed from the series in May of 2023.

In February of 2023, insiders told Deadline that Costner’s focus on his film Horizon: An American Saga had been ‘a source of frustration for Sheridan’ and had been ‘causing morale problems for the other stars of the show.’

Grimes said: ‘We were able to finish the show and finish it in a way that I think is really gonna work for everybody, even in the midst of all that’ – pictured 2022

Costner departed from the series in May of 2023 amid a rumored feud with show creator Taylor Sheridan – pictured 2018 

 Costner’s departure from the series was confirmed by May of 2023, as production sources told Entertainment Tonight that the Dances With Wolves star had departed from the series.

Costner’s exit came following a period that was doomed by ‘a lot of confusion and frustration’ about his status moving forward, sources told the outlet.

Paramount in May of 2023 confirmed that the series would conclude with the fifth season’s second half.

It was originally scheduled to be broadcast in November 2023, but last year’s entertainment industry strikes pushed it back a year, with a current premiere date of November 10, 2024.

Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter in June of 2023 that he had been ‘disappointed’ by Costner’s exit, feeling that it impacted the show creatively for the worse.

The actors were seen in an episode of the Paramount Network drama alongside costar Cole Hauser, who plays the role of Rip Wheeler

‘It truncates the closure of his character,’ Sheridan said. ‘It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.’

Sheridan said that his ‘opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered’ as result of his leaving, calling his ‘creation of John Dutton … symbolic and powerful.’

Sheridan downplayed about their alleged tension and creative differences: ‘I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone.

‘But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting.’

Sheridan said Costner ‘took a lot of this on the chin’ in terms of the saga playing out publicly, adding, ‘I don’t know that anyone deserves it.’

Sheridan said of Horizon: An American Saga: ‘His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it – and that it’s a good one.’

Costner earlier this month told ET of a potential comeback for Yellowstone’s last season: ‘I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to.’

Asked about his character’s fate, Costner said he’d ‘kind of had my own fantasy how it might be but’ it was ultimately Sheridan’s call.

‘I said as much to him a while back,’ Costner said. ‘I had thoughts how it could happen, but we just have to see.’