Before the history of the Dutton family stretched off into their own shows like “1883” and “1923,” Taylor Sheridan spent some time looking at the younger years of the family patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) on “Yellowstone.” Before Dutton was killed off in the final season, some of the early seasons of “Yellowstone” flashed back to the 1990s to uncover the life-changing moments that impacted his children and those closest to him. To bring a younger version of Costner’s character to life, Sheridan enlisted Josh Lucas to don the hat and well-combed mustache — though he refused to let the pair interact off-screen.
Sheridan deliberately kept Costner and Lucas separate, though not due to any conflict between the actors. Rather, Sheridan used the same technique employed in two of the greatest films ever made by two of the most famous movie stars. If you hadn’t guessed already, it’s the same technique used with both Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando in “The Godfather” and its sequel, who were kept apart to play different eras of the legendary mob boss Don Vito Corleone.
“We’re almost kept separate on purpose,” Lucas explained to Collider in a 2021 interview. “Taylor and I talked about the idea of ‘The Godfather.’ When De Niro was playing Brando, he wasn’t attempting to look or act like Marlon Brando. He was attempting to play the character. That’s what we talked about.” Unfortunately, any other talks about Lucas developing John Dutton’s earlier years fell apart after Costner’s tumultuous departure from the show.
Yellowstone’s final season cut Josh Lucas’ portrayal short
According to Lucas, Sheridan had plans mapped out to further explore the early life of John Dutton before the show came to an end. However, due to Costner’s exit from the final season, such schemes were unfortunately scuppered. “Taylor told me back before we started shooting the first little pieces that it’s not gonna be much for me in the first couple years,” Lucas explained in an interview with Deadline. “‘It’s going to be in the fifth season. The fifth season is where you’re gonna come in.'” Even then, though, Sheridan (who wrote every episode of “Yellowstone”) didn’t have everything nailed down. “‘I don’t know if we’re gonna do full flashback season or full flashback episodes, but that’s what I can tell you,'” the actor recalled the showrunner explaining.
Of course, none of that materialized. Costner — who had a completely different idea for the ending — made an early exit from the show before the second half of the final season aired. Thus, Sheridan was forced to change the plan. Although Lucas appeared in the first half of the fifth season, the character was written out entirely in the second. However, while that ruled out Lucas reprising his role on “Yellowstone” proper, considering Sheridan’s strong interest in exploring the family’s past at the heart of the neo-Western, there may still be room for a prequel tale about how Lucas’ John became the head of the Dutton ranch.
