Yellowstone' cast keeps fans guessing

Actor Cole Hauser has listened to a number of fan theories about the final episodes of the American neo-Western TV series Yellowstone - and is not afraid to tell them they're wrong, Reuters reported.

"This show and what they think this season is going to be - everybody has their opinion of it," said Hauser, who plays a ranch foreman named Rip Wheeler. "And to be quite honest, none of them are right," he added.

Even some cast members were in the dark about the ending, as the team behind the show redated scripts to preserve it. Season five was split into two parts. The final six episodes that will wrap up the show began airing on the Paramount Network on Sunday for US fans and premiered in Britain on Monday.

After its debut in 2018, Yellowstone became the top-rated scripted show in the United States and spawned two spinoff series. The show follows the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, often dubbed "the Yellowstone." Stars include Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes, and Kelly Reilly.

The story centres around family drama at the ranch, the bordering Broken Rock Indian Reservation, and Yellowstone National Park. In Yellowstone season five, part 2, the power struggles for expansion continue.

The final episodes will be without the show's main star, Kevin Costner, who played patriarch John Dutton, and announced his exit from the show in May 2023. The cast called his departure both energising and disheartening.

Reilly, who plays Beth Dutton, found that the media's spin on Costner's exit was full of "untruths."

"The way that Taylor (Sheridan) has ended this season is the way he always intended it to. ... So, there was a small pivot that it had to happen sooner, but it then energised us creatively," she said.