Josh Lucas Returning as John Dutton in YELLOWSTONE Season 5 Which Will Consist of 10 or More Episodes
John Dutton will be included in the upcoming second half of Yellowstone Season 5, as Josh Lucas has confirmed that he will reprise his role as the younger version of the character. Fans are still waiting to see if Kevin Costner will be back as well, as he reportedly wants to return.
Lucas shared the update during an interview with Deadline, in which he said, “I did text Taylor [Sheridan] a couple of months back and said, ‘hey man, I’ve loved working on the show so much.’ He’s like, ‘well we’ll be back.’”
Josh Lucas told Deadline Thursday that “as far as he knows,” he will be reprising his role as a young John Dutton on Yellowstone, which is expected to soon return to production. The second half of season 5 will premiere on Paramount Network in November.
He also revealed that there may be “10 or more episodes” that close out the flagship series before they jump into the spinoff with Matthew McConaughy.
Yellowstone is looking to resume shooting the final episodes of Season 5 later this year, but the story is being developed without the star of the series, Kevin Costner. It was previously reported that Costner wouldn’t appear in the final episodes, and there were no plans for him to return as John Dutton.
After that, it was reported that representatives for Costner's camp have been asking Sheridan to allow the actor to return to finish off his final arc with the series. We just don’t know if that is something Sheridan will be open to as he is reportedly happy with how he's written the final episodes of Season 5 without John Dutton's involvement.
Sheridan previously said of the issue: "I'm disappointed. It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn't alter it, but it truncates it... I don't do f-ck you car crashes. Whether [Dutton's] fate inflates [Costner's] ego or insults is collateral damage that I don't factor in with regard to storytelling."
He added: "My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn't altered. 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. But once lawyers get involved, then people don't get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren't true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don't know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it's a good one."
Costner has explained that had things played out more smoothly, the Yellowstone series would have continued with a sixth and seventh season. Costner was also in negotiations for these two additional seasons, and then everything fell apart.
The actor explained the situation, saying there were negotiations for further seasons of Yellowstone and that he had been offered $24 million to do Seasons 5, 6 and 7. But, there were "issues about creative" and his talks with Sheridan and the series' producers were him trying to "break the logjam." He clarified that it was the producer, not him, who walked away from the table. Costner also indicated that he will "probably go to court" over his departure from the series.