Damn, there's a lot of Yellowstone drama going on this weekend

Cable’s biggest performer is also turning into one of its biggest sources of drama this week—as multiple news stories surrounding Taylor Sheridan’s soon-to-be-ending Yellowstone have percolated into the public sphere, including the suggestion that Kevin Costner might end up taking the show’s production to court.

Costner, whose not entirely un-acrimonious departure from the series is widely believed to be the reason it’s stopping at season 5, was actually speaking in the context of his other big legal drama at the moment, a high-profile divorce from wife Christine Baumgartner. Per Deadline, Costner was being questioned by Baumgartner’s attorney about whether he was offered a sixth season on the series, for which he would have been paid many millions of dollars (which would, presumably, factor into the divorce settlement). Costner responded by calling the situation “complicated,” saying that he did negotiate a $24 million paycheck for seasons 5, 6, and 7 of the Paramount show. But, Costner said, “There were issues about creative”—which presumably means issues with Sheridan, who writes every single episode of the series, and is famous for the tight hand he keeps over its running—and that when he tried to clear “the logjam,” the show’s producers balked.

Per Deadline, a lot of the conflict came down to how many shooting days the production wanted out of Costner: The decision to cut season 5 into an A and a B half was apparently not to his liking, especially, disrupting the filming of his new movie Horizon. “A show I was only doing once a year I was now doing twice,” he stated, also noting that he’ll “probably go to court” over the circumstances of his departure from the series. (Meanwhile, Costner still has to film his portions of that 10-episode 5B season, the vibe of which, we have to imagine, is likely to be both tense and brief.)

Meanwhile, Yellowstone is also taking hits from outside, as Lily Gladstone—currently drawing rave reviews for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon—took a swing at Sheridan’s vision of the American West in a recent Vulture profile, calling it “Despicable! Deplorable!” (That being said, Gladstone also took a “take what you can get” approach to the show, noting that, “No offense to the Native talent in that. I auditioned several times. That’s what we had.”)