Why Yellowstone Stars Josh Lucas And Kevin Costner Had To Be Kept Apart On Set

For fans of "Yellowstone," the buck stops with John Dutton. Whether played by Kevin Costner in the present story or Josh Lucas in the show's various flashbacks, the Dutton patriarch is the one who makes the rules. Even in his death, the specter of John Dutton lives on as a driving force for the way things all turn out in that controversial "Yellowstone" finale. But no matter who was playing the Montana cattle baron, there was an unspoken rule on the "Yellowstone" set that Costner and Lucas were not to be on the Dutton Ranch at the same time. Interestingly, it wasn't just because their respective versions of the character come from different time periods, either.

In a 2021 interview with Collider, Lucas got candid about his time on the neo-Western. "Anytime you're playing a personality that's iconic and real, it's harder to do it when the person is an actor," Lucas explained. "With Kevin, it was different because it was Taylor Sheridan." The actor recalled that working with Sheridan was a dream come true and that the "Yellowstone" creator was intentional about when Costner and Lucas were scheduled.

"Taylor and I talked about the idea of 'The Godfather.' When [Robert] De Niro was playing Brando, he wasn't attempting to look or act like Marlon Brando," Lucas explained. It was with this in mind that Costner and Lucas were separated during filming, hoping to keep the integrity of the John Dutton character consistent across time. Sheridan didn't want Lucas to mimic Costner but, rather, to play the role entirely as written.

When "Yellowstone" first began, Josh Lucas' John Dutton was a regular part of the series. Three of Season 1's nine episodes featured flashbacks to the 1990s, when John was still raising his children to take over the Dutton Ranch for him one day. But as the series progressed, Lucas' involvement changed. By the show's second season, he only appeared once, and he didn't show up in the third or fourth seasons at all. It wouldn't be until Season 5 Part 1 that the younger John Dutton would return to the series in full force, appearing in another five episodes over the course of the show's final season. However, when Kevin Costner's contemporary version of the character was killed off, Lucas was left in the dust.

"'The fifth season is where you're gonna come in,'" Lucas recalled Taylor Sheridan explaining to him in an interview with Deadline. Back then, Sheridan wasn't sure if "Yellowstone" would pursue an entire season's worth of flashbacks or how they would factor into the narrative, but the filmmaker always intended for John Dutton's past to impact his present. The problem was Costner's unceremonious exit from "Yellowstone" left the series partially adrift, and any plans Sheridan had to further expand Lucas' role were dashed. It was a shame too, as Season 5 Part 2 could have just as easily juxtaposed flashbacks featuring the younger John Dutton with the grief of his children. Unfortunately, Sheridan didn't go that route.

Although Josh Lucas originally wanted to play Rip, a role perfectly embodied by Cole Hauser, we cannot understate how perfectly cast he is as the younger John Dutton. There's a different sort of intensity to the younger John than there is when Kevin Costner plays the older iteration. Part of this is because Lucas' version has his whole life ahead of him, while Costner's is on his last leg. Still, for John, legacy and promise are the most important things, and that's something that ought to be further expanded upon across the "Yellowstone" universe.

For many, a young John Dutton prequel series would be the way to go, and it would certainly allow Lucas to explore this character more than we ever got in his nine brief appearances on the original show. In the aforementioned Deadline interview, Lucas noted that Taylor Sheridan's intent with the "Yellowstone" flashbacks was to "fill in the gaps of who John Dutton is and why he does the things he does." In the end, that only partially came across, as the flashbacks themselves felt largely incomplete. No doubt, Costner's premature exit had something to do with this.

That said, Sheridan ought to follow in his own footsteps and pursue a prequel series — or perhaps even be a miniseries. After all, the "Yellowstone" brand has successfully expanded with the likes of "1883" and "1923," and there are more prequels and spin-offs already underway. Costner's John Dutton may be dead and buried, but Lucas' rendition lives on in the "Yellowstone" franchise's past, where there are still plenty more stories to tell.