Luke Grimes reflects on Kevin Costner's Yellowstone exit: 'You gotta do what you gotta do'

Luke Grimes understands why his Yellowstone costar Kevin Costner chose to ride off into the sunset a little bit earlier than anticipated. 

The actor, who plays the youngest son of Costner’s character John Dutton III, addressed his costar’s surprise exit from the show amid its fifth and final season in a recent interview with the Independent.

“Whatever happened there is unfortunate if it’s changed anything about how the show was going to unfold,” Grimes said, noting that he knew Costner had become “busy” with his “passion projects” as of late like his upcoming film Horizon: An American Saga. 

“At a certain point, you gotta do what you gotta do, man,” he added. “You gotta do what you love.”

Last May, Paramount announced that it would be ending Yellowstone after five seasons. The decision came just a few months after Deadline reported that the network was trying to end the hit Western because Costner wanted to spend less time filming. 

Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan later told The Hollywood Reporter that he was “disappointed” by Costner’s decision to bow out early because it “truncates the closure of his character.” Still, he maintained that “my opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered” throughout the ordeal. 

"I've never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn't work out on the phone," Sheridan said. "But 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 based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don't know that anyone deserves it. His movie 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."

Despite his public exit, it appears that Costner isn't fully ready to hang up his cowboy hat either. The actor expressed interest in potentially returning to Yellowstone in the future during an Entertainment Tonight interview earlier this month.

“I’ve loved making that series. I’ve made five seasons of it. Thought I was going to make seven," he said. "So, how it works out? I hope it does, but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does, and I feel really comfortable with it, I’d love to do it.”

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