“Yellowstone” fans shouldn’t hold their breath for the series’ long-awaited conclusion: Paramount announced Thursday that the final batch of episodes has been delayed until fall 2024.
According to a source with knowledge of the production, “Yellowstone” shifted its production schedules due to the dual actors’ and writers’ strikes.
Since the fifth season of Paramount Network’s blockbuster neo-western premiered last fall, viewers have held out through enough behind-the-scenes drama to keep even the warring Dutton clan busy: After reports that Paramount Network and Kevin Costner were at odds over the future of “Yellowstone,” the star and executive producer, co-creator Taylor Sheridan and several other major cast members no-showed for the Paley Center for Media’s annual PaleyFest event in Los Angeles in April.
Then, in May, Paramount announced that the fifth season would be the flagship series’ last, with the final batch of episodes premiering this month.
With Thursday’s news, “Yellowstone” joins the Emmy Awards, “Dune 2” and several other high-profile endeavors postponed by the Hollywood work stoppage, which began when writers went on strike in May; they were joined by actors in July. Though Writers Guild of America members ratified the union’s new contract with the studios early last month, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists remains on the picket lines. Negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, are ongoing.
The Times also confirmed Thursday that Paramount, which had previously announced a sequel series to “Yellowstone,” added two more series to Sheridan’s ever-expanding universe, set in the 1940s and the present day, respectively. “Yellowstone” has already inspired two prequel series, “1883” and “1923,” as well as the spinoffs “Lawmen: Bass Reeves” and “6666.”
