'Yellowstone' Has Finally Revealed the Fate of Kevin Costner's John Dutton

Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers for the Season 5B premiere of Yellowstone.

After much delay and huge amounts of anticipation, Yellowstone is back for the final half of its fifth season. One of the biggest reveals of the premiere of Season 5B, though, was the fate of Kevin Costner's John Dutton, who was the show's main character for much of its run.

Fans of the show who haven't been following the news around it were likely shocked to discover what happens to John in the premiere episode. Here's what we know about John's fate and about why it happened.

While it may have seemed like a bold creative choice to kill off John Dutton heading into the show's final episodes, in reality, the move was made because of disputes between Costner and the show's creator, Taylor Sheridan. According to Costner, the show continued to delay its shooting schedule because of constant rewrites, and Costner was tired of waiting around for the show to set a filming schedule.

As a result, Costner left the show prior to these episodes in a much-publicized move, essentially leaving the series without its main character.

In the Season 5B premiere, Yellowstone addresses Costner's absence by killing John Dutton. The episode opens with his daughter Beth arriving at John's house to discover that her father has been shot and killed. John's body is shown but his face is not, as the body is seemingly a double and Costner was not present on set.

Beth immediately jumps to the conclusion that her brother, Jamie, is responsible for John's death, as he has been at war with the family. We see Jamie get the news, though, and his reaction to John's death and the subsequent announcement of his father's murder both seem genuine, which leaves viewers wondering who is actually responsible.

The episode eventually makes that clear, though, showing Jamie's girlfriend Sarah hiring a hitman to stage a suicide. When Jamie appears to be genuinely devastated, Sarah says she's confused because they discussed this and he told her to move forward.

Apparently, Jamie didn't think that John would actually be killed. This series of events sets up a climactic showdown between Jamie and Beth in the show's final episodes.

In interviews to promote his film Horizon: An American Saga, Costner explained that he had tried to make Yellowstone his priority, but the shifting schedules made it impossible to finish his film.

"But if you know me well enough, I made Yellowstone the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong," he said. "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. And I don’t know why they didn’t stick up for me."

Now, John is dead, and it doesn't seem like Costner will ever be returning to the show that he made a huge success.