“It’d be a great place to raise a family”: One of Yellowstone’s Lead Stars Moved to Montana for the Show, Now Refuses to Leave

Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone counts among the rare few projects in Hollywood that have managed to not only garner love and respect among fans and critics but also shock and awe among industry experts for its sheer scale of storytelling. It comes as no surprise then that the ending of such a greatly beloved series would be met with a little resistance, even from its own cast members.

Having starred in Yellowstone since the very first season, the leading stars portraying the Dutton family have been the ones to be impacted the most. Their story which was supposed to stretch for no less than 7 seasons has been abruptly cut short and with the series already in its final leg, emotion cuts particularly deep knowing they have to forever leave behind the characters they nurtured to grow for the past 7 years.

Yellowstone Finale Brings Back Nostalgia and Emotions

Taylor Sheridan‘s supreme ability as a creator and showrunner of one of the most popular Western shows on television is to create a world and a universe so vast, diverse, and teeming with life that each character – animate or inanimate – feels as though it has a lifetime’s worth of story to share. Every character no matter how insignificant, short-lived, or transient holds generations’ worth of backstory and Luke Grimes is no different from the rest.

While the outside world remains distracted by Kevin Costner and the increasing animosity between the actor and the director, the rest of the Yellowstone crew internally struggles with varied emotions ranging from separation anxiety to plain old grief. Costner, on the other hand, has been busy with the premiere of his four-part Western feature, Horizon: An American Saga. 

Despite a 7-minute standing ovation at Cannes and nearly going bankrupt in the process, Costner must have felt chasing after his passion project was far more valuable than sitting around waiting for 14 months before giving up. Now that the series finale moves forward with or without him, Costner makes an urgent yet indirect plea about willingly reconciling the situation and teasing his possible return in Season 5 Part B.

Yellowstone Star Luke Grimes Finds His Home in Montana

Not only is Yellowstone located and filmed in Montana but the state also happens to be host to a beautiful expanse of open fields that stretch till they meet the sky on the horizon. A sight so far removed from the hustle of the city and exponentially more peaceful would naturally attract people to give up the big city life and permanently settle in Montana.

Yellowstone actor Luke Grimes too has been feeling an undeniable attraction to the countryside as he prepares to depart the series for good. In a March 2024 interview with People, Grimes revealed:

For seven years, we’ve been doing this, and we started in 2017. That’s crazy. This cast and crew, they’re like a second family, we spend a lot of time together. It’s been one of the most intense experiences of my life. Also, one of the most rewarding. It’s changed my life in every way possible.

My wife and I love it out there. I think it’d be a great place to raise a family. I never know what the future holds. Who knows where the next thing will be and how long I’ll have to be there. I’m always open to anything, but for the foreseeable future, I’ll be there. I really have fallen in love with it.

While Yellowstone may be coming to an end, the history, tradition, and legacy that it has built around itself will last for generations to come. With a larger-than-life story of grandiose scale and epic proportions, the television Western turns the established genre on its head and redefines itself as the series keeps snowballing in fan popularity over the years.

For now, two Yellowstone spin-off series titled 1994 and 2024 are in the works with Matthew McConaughey being locked in to helm the latter one.

Yellowstone is available for streaming on Paramount+ with Season 5 Part 2 releasing in November 2024.