Yellowstone's Luke Grimes and Kelsey Asbille Discuss the Season Finale's Most Shocking Moment

Yellowstone Bombshell: Did John Dutton Really Die?

Hold onto your hats, Yellowstone fans, because the show is back and more dramatic than ever! The mid-season premiere kicked off with a shocking twist that no one saw coming: the apparent death of John Dutton. In the episode's opening scene, John Dutton seemingly takes his own life, leaving viewers reeling. What does this mean for the future of the Yellowstone ranch?

Director Christina Voros recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the decision to address Kevin Costner's departure from the show head-on. Voros explained that series creator Taylor Sheridan wanted to move the story forward quickly, shifting the focus to the remaining characters and how they deal with the loss of John Dutton.

"I think Taylor’s decision to begin this way was incredibly brave,” Voros said. “I think it is testament to his faith in the characters and the actors who embody them to go, 'Let’s not make this about the incident. Let’s make this about how these human beings exist in the aftermath.' That was more interesting to [Taylor] than the incident itself.”

Although Voros found the script surprising, she also believes that revealing John Dutton's death in the first few minutes of the episode creates a new mystery: what happens next?

Kevin Costner, for his part, has admitted that he hasn't seen the premiere and doesn't plan on watching it anytime soon. Speaking on The Michael Smerconish Program, Costner said, "I didn’t see [the premiere]. I heard it’s a suicide. That doesn’t make me wanna rush to go see it. They’re pretty smart people. Maybe it’s a red herring. They’re very good. They’ll figure that out.”

Could Costner be right? Could John Dutton somehow still be alive? The sources don't give us a definitive answer, but one thing is certain: Luke Grimes and Kelsey Asbille, who star as Kayce and Monica Dutton, have warned fans that the rest of the season is going to be an emotional rollercoaster.

"[The script] gets right into it from page one… It’s kind of a gut punch," the actors said in an interview with 9Entertainment. "There’s a finality to it and [Sheridan] really leans into the loss and the end—in a beautiful way, though. It’s going to make you feel all the right things you want to feel in the finale episode of the show you’ve loved for so long.”

We'll have to tune in to find out how the Duttons will cope with this devastating loss and what the future holds for the Yellowstone.