“I loved it and I know you did”

Kevin Costner is officially moving on to new horizons. The actor has hung up his “Yellowstone” hat and ruled out a return to the long-awaited final episodes of the hit Paramount Network series.

Costner, who was already on a promotional tour for the first and second parts of his western epic “Horizon”, announced his decision with a video on social mediafilmed during the day but not posted on his accounts until Thursday evening.

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“After this year and a half of working on ‘Horizon’ and all the things that go into that – and thinking about ‘Yellowstone,’ this beloved show that I love and I know you love – I just realized that I can’t continue with Season 5B or the future,” Costner said in the video. “It really changed me. I loved it and I know you loved it. I just wanted to let you know that I’m not going back. I love the relationships that I’ve been able to build. And I’ll see you at the movies.”

The first eight episodes of the fifth season of “Yellowstone” aired in fall 2022, with Costner reprising his role as John Dutton. Now, after a long development phase and strike-related delays, the final six episodes are finally in production.

With Costner currently busy promoting Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 and its sequel, and having distanced himself from the series for over a year and threatened to sue the show’s producers, a return already seemed unlikely at best. Paramount Network announced a November 10 premiere date for the final episodes on Thursday morning, hours before Costner made his continued absence official.

Costner’s comments come just days after the actor floated a possible return to “Yellowstone” “under the right circumstances” on the Today show. It was the latest of several suggestions from the star that he would be interested in recurring in the show’s final episodes.

“If you say there’s a chance, then there’s always a chance,” he said on the talk show. “I love the thing. You have to say that really clearly.”

Now, three days later, Costner has ruled out that chance.

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