The season five return of Yellowstone is so secretive that not even the cast knows how it’s all going to play out. The show’s stars revealed on

Friday that the back half of the season came with redacted scripts so the actors would only know their own lines, eliciting real-time reactions

in some cases as they filmed the show’s return, which is in production in Montana and airs later this fall.

“This season has been very secretive,” says Kelsey Asbille, who plays Monica Dutton, in a revealing video tease released by Paramount Network on Friday (below) that includes interviews with the main castmembers who make up the Dutton family — Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, Luke Grimes and Cole Hauser. Star Kevin Costner, who played patriarch John Dutton, famously exited the series ahead of the final run, and how the show will handle his storyline remains under lock and key.

The cast of TV’s biggest show has largely been silent in the lead-up to these episodes for the flagship series to what has become Taylor Sheridan‘s sprawling Yellowstone-verse. The season 5B episodes premiere Nov. 10 at 8 p.m. on Paramount Network, with an encore two hours later on CBS, it was announced this week.

Speaking to the security that was put in place around the second half of the fifth season, Jen Landon (who plays Dutton ranch hand Teeter) explained how the cast received “redacted” scripts.

“Basically everything is blacked out except for your lines,” she said.

Dawn Olivieri, who plays fixer Sarah Atwood, the romantic interest of Bentley’s Jamie Dutton, added, “I don’t know what she did, she doesn’t know what I did. We can’t tell each other.”

Director Christina Voros explained that the show has never operated like this before, and that, while it presented a new set of challenges seven years in, it was done to protect the story “for the sake of the audience.”

And the unique approach elicited real-time reactions from the actors that Denim Richards (who plays ranch hand Colby) says were “really not rehearsed.”

The creative team spoke about “tons of surprises” for viewers amid what has become an all-eyes-on-Yellowstone level of pressure, and how the cast is at the top of their game. “I have been moved more by the performances from the cast than I ever have been, and that’s saying a lot,” said Voros as new, emotional scenes are flashed of Reilly’s Beth Dutton, Grimes’ Casey Dutton, Bentley’s Jaime Dutton and Hauser’s Rip Wheeler.

“It has brought me to tears, and I think people are going to really, really love it,” said Grimes.

An episode count has yet to be confirmed when viewers tune in to see how Yellowstone will handle Costner’s departure after the John Dutton-heavy events of the midseason finale, which aired way back in January 2023 (before the Costner-Sheridan disputes and dual Hollywood strikes of 2023 caused delays).

Reilly and Hauser — who play the married fan favorites Beth and Rip — are now in talks to star in a possible sixth season of Yellowstone, after season 5B had been announced to be the final season.

A possible continuation would be different than the Yellowstone sequel series, The Madison, which will star Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Fox. That show — one of several spinoffs in the universe — is described as “a heartfelt study of grief and human connection following a New York City family in the Madison River valley of central Montana.”

Yellowstone chronicles the Dutton family, which controls the largest contiguous cattle ranch in the United States. It delves into shifting alliances, unsolved murders, open wounds and hard-earned respect — the ranch is in constant conflict with those it borders: an expanding town, a Native American reservation and America’s first national park.

Produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios, Yellowstone is co-created by executive producers Sheridan (Wind River, Hell or High Water and Sicario) and John Linson. Costner remains an executive producer, along with Art Linson, David C. Glasser, Bob Yari, Stephen Kay, Michael Friedman, Voros and Keith Cox. The series is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution