Kevin Costner just won’t pull the plug on Horizon: An American Saga.
Remember the saga around the passion project saga that the Yellowstone star had laid out? Horizon: An American Saga was supposed to be a four-part, western-theatrical series… and it only made it through it’s first part. “Chapter Two” of Horizon: An American Saga was pulled from its original August 2024 theatrical release after the first installment’s poor performance.
Why? Well, to be frank, it was solely because the saga’s first chapter performed abysmally at the box office. Horizon’s maiden voyage at the movies only made $11 million in its opening weekend. That obviously means the film fell short of expectations, considering that Costner had put forth $38 million of his own money for his passion project, and the first film’s budget came in around $100 million.
It was a little risky to plan – and basically go ahead and execute – a four-part movie series before giving audiences a chance to see if they like it. With the struggles of “Chapter One,” Costner and his movie crew opted to pull “Chapter Two” from the release calendar.
According to the reports, the 71-year-old actor and director sat down with Territory Pictures and their distribution partner, New Line Cinema, and ultimately made the decision to delay the second film. At first it was rumored to be an effort to allow for fans to see the first movie… but it’s been over two years now since “Chapter Two” was supposed to be released.
I’m no expert on film… but that seems like plenty of time for people to watch the first part of the four-part saga.
Since there hasn’t been much news surrounding Costner’s failed (?) four-part theatrical plan, many have just assumed that the world won’t ever see “Chapter 2,” and they certainly don’t need to hold their breath waiting for Chapters 3 and 4. After all, it’d probably be a headache to align all of the schedules for all of the actors and actresses that were originally involved in the planned theatrical series, and get all of the sets built back up.
Then again, the first installment of Horizon: An American Saga has held its own on Prime Video. So there’s always some hope that “Chapter 2,” which is finished, could be released there… which could lead to the next two parts being green lit, and possibly released on streaming as well.
Costner allegedly still has a lot of hope. Take this source with a grain of salt… but someone on Reddit says they ran into the Hollywood icon, and mentioned the Horizon saga to him. Here’s how the rest apparently played out:
“Yesterday at work I happened to meet Kevin Costner in passing. I told him I’m excited for ‘Horizon Part II.’ He started grinning and said, ‘I’m excited that you want to see it! Before you see part II you need to watch the first one again. Ultimately we are going to release four.’ He seemed quite optimistic about the release of the second installment.”
In other words, and to quote Rocky V, it appears that Kevin Costner “didn’t hear no bell.”
If that Redditor is telling the truth, Costner is still pushing mightily hard to make Horizon: An American Saga happen. There have been rumors that he’s been meeting various investors for financing (like Saudi Arabia), but there’s also been verifiable reports that the lawsuits the production faces – one over unpaid costume rentals and the other being a sexual assault allegation from a stunt performer – are what’s really stopping the saga from moving forward.
Only time will tell if Horizon ever finishes the story it set out to tell… but one things for sure, “Chapter 2” isn’t coming out in 2026, and “Chapter 3” and “Chapter 4” face an uphill battle to even be made at all.
