How did John Dutton die in ‘Yellowstone’?

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After some tumultuous shuffles behind the scenes, Yellowstone is supposedly set to conclude with the second part of its fifth season.

Created by Taylor Sheridan and John Linson, the Western drama series follows the conflicts along the shared borders of the Yellowstone ranch, owned by the Dutton family.

READ MORE: Here’s every song on the Yellowstone soundtrack

Up until season five part two, Kevin Costner led the series as John Dutton, alongside other cast members Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, and Cole Hauser.

Costner, however, announced in June 2024 he would not return for the final set of episodes, and later blamed the outcome on mismanagement within Paramount and 101 Studios, who apparently made it difficult for him to juggle filming on Western film Horizon.

“I made Yellowstone the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong,” Costner told Deadline in response to reports surrounding his exit. “I did not initiate any of those things. They did. They were doing a tap dance and this poor guy was also having to write so much.”

How did John Dutton die in Yellowstone season 5?

In episode nine of season five, Costner’s character is found dead from a gunshot wound. While it’s initially assumed he died by suicide, by the end of the episode, we discover Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri) – the girlfriend of John’s estranged son Jamie (Wes Bentley) – had hired someone to kill him.

Has Kevin Costner said anything about John Dutton’s death?

After the episode aired on November 10, 2024, Costner appeared on SiriusXM where he discussed his character’s death – after only being made aware of it that same morning.

“I didn’t see it, I heard it’s a suicide, so that doesn’t make me want to rush to go see it,” Costner remarked. He did, however, say John’s death could have been a “red herring”, adding: “[The writers] are very good, they’ll figure that out.”