Then rumors began to swirl that things on the Paramount show set were getting tough for Costner as he began feuding with Sheridan. According to reports, Costner prioritized his own Horizon films over the production schedule of Yellowstone. He was directing three films which he gave precedence over his acting commitments as rancher John Dutton on Yellowstone.

However, Costner maintained that this “wasn’t truthful,” and the only reason such a situation occurred was that he had been given conflicting information about the production schedule for Yellowstone.

“I don’t want to get down in the gutter with the Yellowstone  thing but what I’m telling you is straight up. I have taken a beating from those f**king guys and I know a lot of times where it’s coming from,” Costner said. “I just elected not to get into that. But if you know me well enough, I made Yellowstone the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong.”

Costner also went on to say how he did not know “why they don’t stick up for me.” He claimed that he had blocked 25 days for season 5, part B, of Yellowstone but that “there was no script.”

Costner said he wanted to give the Yellowstone team another week to give his character John Dutton a satisfying ending but claims that this was spun into saying that he only wanted to work for a week.

“Do you think that’s who I am? I’ve never missed a day of work,” Costner insists. “I’ve never left before fulfilling my contractual obligations. A lot of times, I stay as much as I can,” the actor said.

Costner also shared how he had only intended to do Yellowstone for one season but ended up doing so many more.

“They imploded. I had a contract to do five, six and seven. I was contracted to do that,” he alleges. “There’s nothing I could have done to get out of that, nor was I trying to just figure out how, when we started. When we finished, I wanted to do Horizon. It all happened because they shut down one whole season, didn’t tell anybody and I didn’t work for 14 months.”

Despite all the bad blood and drama, Costner says on his part, he is ‘very open’ to returning to the show.

“I took a beating over these guys not speaking up for me and allowing crazy stories to come out,” Costner shared. “I’m not happy about that. But if the writing is there, I will be there too.”

The second half of Yellowstone‘s fifth season was scheduled to begin filming this month.

Costner has also previously expressed his interest in reprising his role as Dutton on the show. He said, “I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to.” He went on, “…I thought I was going to make seven [seasons] but right now we’re at five. So how it works out — I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on. Maybe it will. Maybe this will circle back to me. If it does and I feel really comfortable with [it], I’d love to do it.”

Costner’s on-screen co-star Luke Grimes, who plays his son, Kayce Dutton, recently said in an interview, “Whatever happened there is unfortunate if it’s changed anything about how the show is going to unfold. I know [Costner] got busy with his movies that were like passion projects. At a certain point, you gotta do what you gotta do, man; you gotta do what you love.”

Josh Lucas, who plays the younger version of Costner’s character on-screen, said in an interview earlier this year, “I texted [creator] Taylor Sheridan a couple months ago, and his response was, ‘Absolutely, we’re going to finish this with 10 episodes or so.’ I know as much as you do, but I think we got 10 episodes to kind of wrap it up and I can’t wait to go do it.”