Back to the ranch. The Yellowstone universe keeps expanding, and the franchise’s flagship series is no exception — Paramount renewed the show for a fifth season in February 2022.
Starring Kevin Costner, Kelly Reilly and Wes Bentley, the drama series premiered on the Paramount Network in June 2018. The modern western has since become a phenomenon, inspiring multiple spinoffs and racking up nominations at various awards shows.
In 2021, Yellowstone was one of the most-watched cable shows of the year, with more than 11 million viewers tuning in for the season four finale. Costner has been famous since the 1980s, but Yellowstone has helped him reach a whole new audience.
“If I’m out, within an hour, somebody is going to talk about it,” the Oscar winner told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published in March 2022. “You kind of hope that happens a little bit and it has. I think it’s what happens when you have great dialogue and you put it against mountains and rivers and running horses. I think there’s a little gold dust on it.”
The show follows the exploits of the Dutton family, who own the largest ranch in Montana. Costner plays family patriarch John Dutton, while Reilly stars as his daughter, Bethany, and Bentley appears as his son Jamie. The ensemble cast also includes Luke Grimes, Gil Birmingham, Cole Hauser and Kelsey Asbille.
When season 4 ended, the ranch had weathered a militia attack led by Jamie’s biological father, Garrett Randall (Will Patton). Beth married Rip Wheeler (Hauser) after tipping a journalist off to the fact that Market Equities planned to squash a protest with help from the National Guard. Jamie, meanwhile, killed Garrett, which Beth plans to use as blackmail in the future.
The cast have said they don’t know what’s going to happen until they get the scripts, but Reilly thinks her character is planning revenge in season 5. “Beth has decided she cannot rest until she gets justice,” the actress said in a promotional video for the show. “She wants blood. It’s really kind of intense.”
While fans wait for the next installment, there’s plenty of other Yellowstone content to go around. A prequel series titled 1883 premiered in December 2021, starring Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Sam Elliott. Yellowstone cocreator Taylor Sheridan confirmed in February 2022 that 1883 was conceived as a one-season limited series, but a sequel titled 1923 is also in development.
Another spinoff titled 6666 was announced in 2021. That series will debut on Paramount+ and will be set at the real-life Four Sixes Ranch in Guthrie, Texas. In May 2021, a group led by Sheridan purchased the property for $200 million. Portions of season 4 were filmed at the ranch, which was established in 1900.
In May 2023, Paramount announced that Yellowstone would end with the second half of season 5 in November and that an untitled sequel series would premiere the following month.
“Yellowstone has been the cornerstone on which we have launched an entire universe of global hits — from 1883 to Tulsa King, and I am confident our Yellowstone sequel will be another big hit, thanks to the brilliant creative mind of Taylor Sheridan and our incredible casts who bring these shows to life,” said Chris McCarthy, president and CEO Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, in a statement at the time.
Keep scrolling for everything to know so far about Yellowstone season 5:
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With reporting by Leanne Aciz Stanton
