It appears that Costner wasn’t on set to film the scene, because while his character’s bloodied corpse is shown, the camera never cuts to his face.
Hours after the scene aired around the world, including on Stan where it airs in Australia, Costner was asked about his feelings about his character’s fate during a radio interview.
“That’s a swear to God moment. I swear to God. I mean, I’ve been seeing ads with my face all over the place and I’m thinking, ‘Gee, I’m not in that one’,” Costner said in an interview with SiriusXM’s The Michael Smerconish Program on Monday morning.
Kevin Costner’s character was brutally killed off in the opening minutes of the show’s latest episode. Photo / Paramount
“I’m not in this season. But I didn’t realise yesterday was the thing. Somebody said, ‘It played last night?’ And I said, ‘Hmm, okay.’ So no, I found out about it this morning actually.
“I didn’t see it. I heard it’s a suicide. That doesn’t make me wanna rush to go see it,” he continued.
“They’re pretty smart people. Maybe it’s a red herring. They’re very good. They’ll figure that out.”
Costner said that earlier in the series’ run, there were “a couple times where I talked about possible endings for myself,” which did not include suicide. But he added that how the Yellowstone writers wrote Dutton out of the story is “their business”.
He then once again addressed why he left the show amid his contract and schedule dispute with Paramount.
“Yeah, I didn’t really have to leave anything behind,” he said.
“There was contractual things that would allow for both [Yellowstone and Horizon] to be done, but because both things were contractual, you had to make room for the other thing. There was room, but it was difficult for [Yellowstone] to keep their schedule.
“It seemed to be, it was just too difficult for them to do it. There was the time there, what happened, you can deal with it. But no one, I didn’t leave. I didn’t quit the show, okay? I had a contract to do all three [remaining seasons].”
Kevin Costner has addressed his exit from Yellowstone. Photo / Getty Images
“And within about an eight-month period, two more different kind of contracts were being negotiated. Not at my request, but at their request to try to do things.
“I accommodated them on those extra two things that changed, and finally when they wanted to change it a third time. [But] because I had my obligations to do, I had 300 people waiting for me, I couldn’t help them anymore … everybody has to live up to what they say they’re going to do, and it doesn’t matter what business you’re in.”
Costner first broke news of his decision to quit back in June in a video he shared on Instagram.
“I want to reach out and let you know that after this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all the things that’s required, and thinking about Yellowstone, that beloved series that I love, that I know you love, I just realised that I’m not going to be able to continue Season 5B or into the future,” he said.
