Taylor Sheridan found success with the Yellowstone franchise, but the show has also led to a surprising number of offscreen feuds.
The western drama, which premiered in 2018, followed the conflicts along the shared border of a large cattle ranch and the Broken Rock Indian Reservation. Kevin Costner got Us invested in the show with his performance as the Dutton family patriarch, but the drama didn’t just remain on screen.
While Yellowstone was initially poised for a lengthy run on the Paramount Network, rumors about Costner’s future on the show put things to a halt. Costner and series creator Sheridan denied reports of a feud, but Paramount Network confirmed in May 2023 that Yellowstone would end for good at the end of season 5. The hits kept coming with Costner not returning for the second half of the final season.
“Kevin has been a big part of Yellowstone’s success,” a spokesperson for the network said in a statement at the time. “While we had hoped that we would continue working with him, unfortunately, we could not find a window that worked for him, all the other talent and our production needs in order to move forward together. We respect that Kevin has prioritized his new film series and we wish him the best.”
Costner, who shifted his focus to directing and acting in Horizon: An American Saga, stood by his decision to move on.
“It wasn’t tough,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2024. “It was a necessary decision to say, ‘Hey, OK, I don’t want to really talk about this anymore. It’s time to move on.’”
Costner continued: “I gave this thing five seasons. I was really happy to do it. And I don’t need drama. So, let’s just take that drama away, let’s take the guessing [away]. The fans have been way too good to me. And my obligation is to go on and continue to make things that mean something to them.”
Yellowstone subsequently ended later that year with Costner’s character getting killed off. The series finale paved the way for his former costars Cole Hauser, Kelly Reilly and Luke Grimes to continue to tell stories in the Yellowstone universe in addition to spinoffs starring new cast members.
Keep scrolling to relive the biggest offscreen feuds in the Yellowstone universe:
Taylor Sheridan vs. Kevin Costner
Paramount confirmed in 2023 that Yellowstone would be coming to an end — for good — at the end of season 5. At the time, there was speculation that Kevin Costner and Taylor Sheridan had a falling out over the direction of the show. Sheridan, for his part, slammed claims he was at odds with Costner.
“My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered,” Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. “His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful … and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone.”
Sheridan, however, hinted that he was not as close to Costner after his departure.
“Once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame,” he noted. “He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. [Horizon] seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”
Costner also addressed a breakdown in communication with Costner, telling Deadline in 2024 that he would have been happy to return for the second half of Yellowstone’s final season — if the scripts had been ready. “I was straight up with [Sheridan], and he said what we would do, and I believed him, and we didn’t get there,” he said.
Cole Hauser vs. Taylor Sheridan
Us Weekly confirmed in December 2023 that Taylor Sheridan’s Bosque Ranch filed a lawsuit against Cole Hauser’s coffee company, Free Rein, for trademark infringement, unfair competition and false advertising.
The filing requested that Hauser’s company stop using the Free Rein brand and “destroy all products, marketing and promotional materials” that relate to their brand. Bosque Ranch also noted that they expected Free Rein to pay “compensatory damages” because Free Rein was allegedly “irreparably damaging” Sheridan’s business.
Hauser didn’t file a response to the lawsuit, and one month later, Sheridan’s legal team requested the suit be dismissed.
When news of the lawsuit broke, comments from Hauser about Sheridan resurfaced. He’d previously told Men’s Journal that he got into a fight with Sheridan the second time they met.
“They know each other so well at this point that Sheridan, who has written or cowritten every episode of the show, uses aspects of Hauser’s early life to elicit emotional responses from him on camera,” the outlet wrote.
Hauser, meanwhile, joked about having a history of getting into bar fights.
“Does a bear s*** in the woods? I’ve probably been in one on every continent,” he quipped. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with fighting. Sometimes I’m just tired of words, so let’s beat the s*** out of each other. Maybe at the end of it you’ll buy me a Guinness and I’ll buy you a Bushmills, and we’ll be done. It’s kind of what guys do.”
Wes Bentley vs. Kevin Costner
In an exposé from The Hollywood Reporter in October 2025, it was revealed that an argument between Kevin Costner and Wes Bentley reportedly resulted in Yellowstone production being briefly shut down.
Multiple sources described an alleged incident where the two costars got into a disagreement over a scene. Costner allegedly pushed Bentley to go off-script, which he refused to do.
“Kevin didn’t like that, and he lunged at him,” a source who was present for the alleged incident told the publication. “No fists were thrown, but they were in each other’s faces, pushing and shoving and just getting hot until they had to be separated.”
The situation allegedly left Kelly Reilly in tears.
“The incident with Wes was the line in the sand,” a second source claimed. “Everything was different after that. Everyone loved Wes and so that really made Taylor upset. Kevin and Taylor butted heads from there on out. It got very awkward.”
A spokesperson for Bentley confirmed the altercation to The Hollywood Reporter, calling it a “work-related argument during an emotional and physically tough scene,” which was “discussed and resolved.”
Costner’s spokesperson declined to comment on the incident.
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