There was that, but he was also said to have had some conflicts with one of the primary show-runners, Taylor Sheridan, who appears in the show periodically as a Texas rancher, who actually owns a real ranch. Allegations hold that Sheridan has been soaking the production for additional fees (tens of thousands USD per week) with a "Cowboy Camp" for the purpose of training cast and crew on how to be authentic cowboys. Now, this is not so outlandish, as there have been others like Dale Dye and R. Lee Ermey who have held "actor boot camps" to get them into a military soldiering mindset for the various war films they were working on. The bills for said services, however, were likely not quite as high as the Cowboy Camp, I suspect. All that, plus additional fees ($50K per week) on the use of his ranch in filming various scenes, as well as the use of his livestock in said scenes ($25 per head). Sheridan, of course, charges fees for his own appearances in various episodes, and on and on. As Costner was first-line executive producer on the show, I suspect he was none too happy about his show's budget getting dinged for all those extra charges. The Paramount bean counters are probably a bit miffed as well, despite the high ratings and revenue the show has generated --- Probably the only reason certain people weren't fired outright when the money started flowing a little too freely.I heard he only want to work and film all of his scenes in like 10 days, for the rest of a season and then get a pay raise as well.
There was another spinoff planned called "The Four Sixes" for release next year. This is Sheridan's ranch, seen several times in prior seasons of Yellowstone, and I get the impression that, after all this stuff happened with Yellowstone, it will be a long time, if never, before we see this project move to production.
Much of this is speculation, as I don't believe anything official has been spoken of outside the scheduling kerfuffle, but there is definitely more to the story than the public has been told. There always is...
Last edited: