Yellowstone star Luke Grimes opens up about the negative fan reactions to John Dutton’s season 5 fate. The successful neo-Western show following the machinations of

\the Dutton family recently kicked off the second half of season 5. Yellowstone boasts an ensemble cast, including Kevin Costner as patriarch John Dutton, as well as

Grimes, Kelly Reilly, Wes Bentley, and Cole Hauser. Season 5, part 2 aired its premiere on November 10, and it featured a shocking plot point in which John Dutton is

found dead following a seemingly self-inflicted gunshot wound, prompting fan backlash.

In an interview with People, Grimes, who plays Kayce Dutton, reveals that the character’s fate was always planned to go down that way, and that it fits in with the series to remove the Dutton family patriarch so that the children have to learn to survive on their own. Check out the actor’s full comments below:

There’s been some negative reactions. I think they feel sort of cheated. And what I would say to that is, I think we were all lucky to have Kevin on the show as long as we did. It was always the plan for him to have to go away for the story to really ramp up, and that was the story. You lose a patriarch of the family. Can the kids do it on their own?

What This Means For Yellowstone’s Future

Yellowstone Is Still Going According To Plan

The nature of final seasons is that they invariably leave some fans dissatisfied, and creative choices have to be taken that might be at odds with what people envisage in their heads. Viewers have followed the story and characters for many years, and often become attached to them, which means there will always be a section of people unhappy with certain decisions. John’s Yellowstone death could be an example of this. There was also the expectation that such an important character would be written out of the show in a more satisfying way.

Grimes’s comments feel a little like lip service to placate a fanbase that is starting to lose patience with the show, but there is cause for optimism. Creator and showrunner Taylor Sheridan has built a reputation as a talented writer, and he is no stranger to dealing with epic narratives involving ensemble casts, as evidenced by his other projects like Tulsa King and Lioness. There is no question he has had a plan for the direction of the show for some time, and though Costner’s exit brought unexpected challenges, it sounds like it is still going the way he expected.

Our Take On Yellowstone’s Controversial John Dutton Ending

The Show Was In A Difficult Situation Whatever It Did

While it is true that having the patriarch depart to leave his kids to face the struggles of the world alone is a well-trodden path in storytelling, it’s likely this wasn’t the exact storyline Sheridan had planned. Costner’s acrimonious departure from Yellowstone has been well-documented, and this would almost certainly have forced Sheridan and his team into creative decisions they didn’t want to make. The show has enough goodwill to turn things around and win over viewers for the final episodes of Yellowstone, but the specter of John Dutton looms large.