Kevin Costner may have become the face of Yellowstone, but according to creator Taylor Sheridan, John Dutton was never supposed to stick around as long as he did.

Costner starred in the hit Paramount Network series for five seasons — well, four and a half — before his very public departure, but Sheridan recently revealed that the original plan would have seen the actor exit much earlier.

Taylor Sheridan on Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone Exit

While chatting on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Sheridan revealed that Costner wasn’t actually supposed to stick around for the entire series.

“Kevin was only supposed to be in the first three seasons,” Sheridan said. “That was in his contract. In my mind, that’s when his youngest son takes over, and then we have to watch [them] lose that ranch, or not lose the ranch, whatever the case is going to be.“

The Network Didn’t Want to Let Costner Go

According to Sheridan, Costner was “ready to go” by the end of season 3. By that point, however, Yellowstone had exploded into one of the biggest shows on television, and the network understandably wasn’t eager to let its biggest star ride off into the sunset.

“The network was so scared of not having Kevin be a part of it,” Sheridan said. “He had other things he wanted to do, but he stayed on for another two seasons, and that was just because the show was such behemoth. It was such a huge hit that the notion of giving up a hit before it had run out of juice to squeeze is very foreign to a network.“

In other words, the original version of Yellowstone would have shifted focus much sooner, with the next generation of Duttons taking center stage as the future of the ranch hung in the balance. Instead, Costner remained the show’s anchor until the behind-the-scenes issues surrounding his eventual exit became impossible to ignore.

“Finally, Kevin hit a point where he’s like, ‘I gotta do my own thing,’” Sheridan continued. “We had originally conceived it together that it was three seasons, and then the baton is handed. I thought it wouldn’t have been better for the show because we had tried to tread water for a bit there. I think it was pretty evident.“

Do you think Yellowstone would have been better if it had stuck to the original plan for John Dutton rather than dragging out his story? Let us know in the comments!