EXCLUSIVE: The upcoming Season 5 finale of Yellowstone will not be the end of the Dutton clan’s story. Series standouts Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser have closed deals to lead a spinoff series, reprising their roles as Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler, respectively, sources tell Deadline.
Taylor Sheridan, the mastermind behind Yellowstone and its ever-expanding universe, is working on the creative for the new show, which will likely feature other cast members from the mothership series alongside Reilly and Hauser, I hear. Led by Yellowstone characters played by the same actors in the same present-day time frame, the new offshoot shares the most DNA with the mothership of any shows in the Yellowstone universe to date, which explains why it will be the first spinoff to carry Yellowstone in the title, sources said.
Ahead of the Sunday Season 5 finale of Yellowstone, there had been growing confusion over what happens next for the characters in the hugely popular drama series who are still alive at the end of the upcoming episode.
As Deadline reported in August, Yellowstone producers MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios had been negotiating with Reilly and Hauser for months. The two initially had been eyed for a spinoff. It emerged over the summer that the duo may carry on as leads of Yellowstone Season 6 as the series moves on after the death of its original central character, Kevin Costner’s John Dutton.
That scenario was supported by the fact that Paramount Network, which originally had announced Season 5B as Yellowstone‘s last installment, quietly dropped that messaging when the teaser for the sub-season was released in June, touting the new episodes instead as the saga’s “epic return.” Similarly, the promo for the upcoming closer calls it a season finale, not a series finale.
Though Paramount has yet to officially confirm the series, stars Reilly and Hauser have seemingly given the thumbs up to the rumors recently. When asked in a comment on an Instagram post whether the rumors of a spinoff were true, Reilly responded with a hopeful single-word answer, “True.” Hauser also gave fans something to get excited about on Instagram, sharing an image from early in Yellowstone’s filming with a caption including the line, “What a ride. What a office. See ya on the next.”
While the intent remains to continue the story in Yellowstone and a source has indicated that doing another season is not completely out of the question, the focus ultimately returned to doing it in a new series, I hear. That would allow Paramount Network’s parent Paramount Global to keep the show within the company’s ecosystem unlike the mothership series, which has a pre-existing exclusive streaming deal with NBCUniversal’s Peacock.
The Yellowstone franchise’s first contemporary spinoff, The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, is slated to follow Season 5B of the mothership series. Its prequel series include 1883 and 1923.
