Director Christina Voros dives into the highly anticipated return of the hit Paramount Network series to reveal how they kept John Dutton's fate a secret (there were code words), how it propels everything forward and how the cast "shouldered the weight of [Costner's] absence in such a bold and beautiful way.

Yes, it appears that John Dutton really is dead. At the start of the ninth episode, John Dutton is found dead in the bathroom of the Montana governor’s mansion, with a gunshot wound to the head. As Kevin Costner’s face wasn't shown directly, fans not wanting to believe he could be dead thought this could be a misdirection.

News broke in November 2022 that Oscar winner, who played John Dutton, left the show after the first half if its fifth and final season.

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After almost two years of questions of what will happen to John Dutton III in Yellowstone Season 5, Part 2, fans finally learned the fate of the Dutton family patriarch when the series returned on. However,

Their lips were zipped. “Yellowstone” is currently airing the second half of Season 5, which was announced as the final season of the hit ranch drama. Before the final stretch of episodes, Kevin Costner left the show amid rumors of an alleged feud with creator and showrunner Taylor Sheridan.

After months of speculation, we now know the fate of the Dutton patriarch—and it's even more dramatic than expected.