Given Kevin Costner’s longstanding association with the Western genre, which has seen him play the likes of Wyatt Earp and appear in everything from “Dances with Wolves” to “Silverado” (per IMDb), it just makes sense that he’s starring as ranching family patriarch John Dutton in “Yellowstone.” It’s also appropriate that he’s earning praise for his work as Dutton.
There was, however, no guarantee that Costner’s performance — or, for that matter, the show itself — would become such a smashing success. Creator Taylor Sheridan reportedly had a very tough time getting what is now one of TV’s most successful series off the ground. According to a profile of the writer, director, producer, and actor in The Atlantic, his concept for “Yellowstone” had languished in HBO’s hands for years before he brought it to the Paramount Network.
Some of the difficulties may have also come down to the level of creative control that Sheridan demanded, which essentially iced Paramount out of everything except footing the hefty production costs. Executives agreed to his terms for two reasons. One, they were duly impressed by Sheridan’s past work –- in particular his 2017 film “Wind River.” The second was that they were excited to work with Kevin Costner, who had already signed on to play John Dutton.
Costner’s father thought the show was naughty
Still, agreeing to such an expensive show on Taylor’s terms was indeed a risk and must have created many a doubt. Among the doubters was Kevin Costner’s own father, who thought that fans would balk at seeing him play such a morally compromised character. “My dad, who passed away this year, my mom, too, within months of each other, took a big interest in my career,” Costner told Parade. “He said, ‘You’re going to lose your audience, fellow. That is a naughty show.’ He said, ‘They’re going to drift away, son.’”
Costner didn’t take his dad’s advice and went ahead with playing John Dutton. While it is true that we are used to seeing Costner as the good guy, he’s not exactly a stranger to playing characters whose actions might have questionable motivations. Yes, his resume of Westerns includes plenty of morally upstanding men, but it also includes “Hatfields & McCoys,” in which Costner portrayed the less-than-squeaky-clean William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield.
Of course, everything came out just fine in the end. “Yellowstone” became a massive hit, and spawned a franchise in the process. By then, Costner told Parade, his father’s nurses were asking what happened next in the show. “He just forgot about that other prediction.”
Kevin Costner nearly turned down Yellowstone, here’s why
Yellowstone has become one of the biggest drama series currently running, but lead star Kevin Costner wasn’t entirely sure about it art first
The Yellowstone franchise of TV series has become a pop culture juggernaut. Besides the base drama series starring Kevin Costner, we’ve got no less than three spin-offs, including Yellowstone 1923 and 6666. It all might not have happened without Costner in the lead role, and he wasn’t completely convinced at first.
As he explained to Entertainment Tonight, the scope off Yellowstone changed during development, and as the lead star, he grew a little sceptical. “I thought we were going to do one long movie, ten hours,” Costner says. “So I’m down with long, I understand long really well, and it was pitched to me we were going to do one long movie. Somewhere along the line, they wanted to turn [it] into a series, and you kinda have to look at things again.”
Eventually, Costner trusted his gut that this was something special he shouldn’t turn down. “I have my own internal reasons why I ended up doing it,” he stated, “but ultimately, there’s that window of opportunity… [where] you gotta jump creatively, and so I did that. I’m happy for the show and everyone in it.”
Created by Taylor Sheridan, Yellowstone has become a juggernaut for Paramount. The base thriller series follows Costner as John Dutton, the patriarch of a ranch who navigates a troubled family and trying to preserve his land.
The original was so warmly received more and more shows in the universe are being greenlit, all tackling different generations of Duttons. Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren are the leads in 1923, proving the franchise getting Costner was no accident, and 1883 season 2 is set to deepen the overall history even further.