There’s a lot of conversation surrounding the show Yellowstone right now – but not about the on-screen product.
The hit show is coming to an abrupt end after season 5, despite initial belief that the show would run for seven seasons, amid lead actor Kevin Costner leaving the show after a breakdown in his relationship with director Taylor Sheridan over the actor’s schedule.
Costner is one of the highest paid television actors in the business right now, making over $1 million per episode, but that isn’t enough to keep him on board.
And rather than continue on without the great John Dutton, Taylor Sheridan has opted to speed up his conclusion and end the show.
Now, not only are we left to wonder how the series is going to wrap up without Costner, but we’re also left to question when the final half of season five will premiere, with rumors swirling that it may not come until 2024.
With the ongoing writers strike that still has no end in sight, it appears that a 2024 premiere is the most likely scenario, even though it was hoped that we could get a premiere by November at the latest. Of course, the season was originally supposed to resume this summer, but that obviously isn’t happening.
But despite all the controversy and uncertainty surrounding the show’s abrupt ending, Yellowstone actress and country star Lainey Wilson says she’s appreciative of Yellowstone for what the series has done for country music.
Wilson, who plays the latest character Abby in season five, recently revealed that although she has no idea how the series is going to end, she’s still grateful that it’s been able to bring real country music to a broader audience:
“I love what they’ve done for the Western way of life. I love what they’ve done for country music.
I think it was really perfect timing for me and what I do, too, because it’s kind of like they might make country music cool again.
I’m not saying that it wasn’t. I mean, it’s always been cool to me, but if you get on TikTok, you see all the kids wearing cowboy hats and listening to country music and it’s kind of become more of a pop culture thing, which is really neat to see because, I mean, that’s the way of life that I grew up with.”
The series has certainly put country music front and center, with music supervisor Andrea von Foerster including songs from artists like Colter Wall, Charley Crockett and Whiskey Myers who traditionally don’t get much mainstream attention.
And there have been plenty of studies done on the “Yellowstone effect” that having a song featured on the show provides for an artist, with songs shooting to the top of the charts after being featured in the show and seeing massive increases in streams.
But not only that, the show has also provided a platform for Yellowstone star Ryan Bingham to showcase his own music, and launched Kayce Dutton actor Luke Grimes to start a career in country music.
So yeah, it’s not hard to see what Lainey is talking about. The show has not only made Western country music “cool” again (not that it was ever not cool, but it’s made it cool for people who didn’t think it was cool before), it’s also provided a unique platform for artists to get their music heard by a whole new audience.
Now we just have to wait and see when that platform will be returning…
