There’s never any shortage of drama at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch — and that’s seemingly the case offscreen as well.
While Kevin Costner’s future with Yellowstone has long been up in the air, his costars Kelly Reilly, Cole Hauser and Luke Grimes are now asking for more money to appear on the show’s upcoming spinoff, per a Sunday, February 4, report from industry newsletter Puck.
According to the outlet, Yellowstone cocreator Taylor Sheridan hadn’t originally planned to include the three actors in the new spinoff, but he changed his mind after hearing the suggestion that their inclusion could serve as a point of entry for viewers. (Reilly, Hauser and Grimes have played Beth Dutton, Rip Wheeler and Kayce Dutton, respectively since season 1.)
The actors, however, have reportedly asked for major salary increases to reprise their roles after Yellowstone’s fifth and final season wraps up later this year. According to Puck, Reilly, 46, initially asked for $1.5 million per episode for the spinoff, while Hauser, 48, requested $1.25 million (up from the $700,000 per episode he currently makes). The outlet also reported that Reilly and Hauser want to be first on the production’s call sheet, above rumored star Matthew McConaughey.
Further complicating matters is the fact that the actors were contracted for a sixth season of Yellowstone, which is no longer happening. Puck reports that Paramount must still pay them for that season even though it was scrapped in the wake of Costner’s exit from the flagship series.
The future of Yellowstone has been in turmoil since early 2023 when reports surfaced that Costner, 69, wanted out of the show amid rumors of a feud with Sheridan, 53. Sheridan later clarified that Costner wanted to hang up his cowboy hat so he could work on his upcoming two-part film, Horizon: An American Saga. “My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered,” Sheridan told THR of the alleged drama. “His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful … and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone,” Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023.
The first part of Yellowstone’s fifth season premiered in late 2022, with the second part scheduled to follow in summer 2023. After the dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, Paramount Network confirmed that the second half of the season will now premiere in November of this year. The flagship series will conclude with those episodes.
While fans are still hoping that Costner will return as John Dutton to wrap up his story line in Yellowstone’s final installment, the Oscar winner stated last year in court documents related to his divorce from Christine Baumgartner that he “is not involved in any future episodes” of the show.
When confirmed Yellowstone’s end last year, Paramount Network announced that a new spinoff, tentatively titled 2024, will pick up after the events of the flagship series. That’s the spinoff that McConaughey, 54, is attached to, but Puck reported on Sunday that he hasn’t yet signed on the dotted line.
Another spinoff, tentatively titled 1944, will recount the lives of an earlier Dutton generation, as 1883 and 1923 previously did.
