‘Yellowstone’ Starts Production on Final Season 5 Episodes

Paramount Network announced Monday that Yellowstone has resumed production. 

Filming on the Western hit’s final season five episodes has gotten underway in Montana.

While start of production was later than previously thought, MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios still expect the drama to return in November, as previously announced last year.

There was no update on the show’s cast — or whether star Kevin Costner will make an appearance in the final episodes that are expected to wrap the series.

Yellowstone aired it last episode more than a year ago — in January, 2023 — amid Paramount Network deciding to split the season into two parts. Talks of infighting over scheduling and script delays between Costner and showrunner Taylor Sheridan ensued for many months, with Costner also focusing on his upcoming Western epic Horizon: An American Saga. The cast and crew had been planning to resume filming in March 2023 with an announced summer premiere date, but those dates came and went.

Costner has most recently said he wants to return to the show to finish off his character. “I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to … I thought I was going to make seven [seasons] but right now we’re at five. So how it works out — I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe it will. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it.”

But if he’s not involved at this stage, with scripts complete and filming underway, it’s starting to seem less than likely that he will be.

The show had gone on hiatus on a cliffhanger: Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) had just thrown down the gauntlet against his sister Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and father John Dutton (Costner) in a move that would usher in an all-out war between the embittered family members.

An official episode count also has yet to be revealed by the network. Sheridan has previously said he might make more than the previously reported six final episodes. “If I think it takes 10 episodes to wrap it up, they’ll give me 10,” Sheridan says. “It’ll be as long as it needs to be.”