Rip and Beth may have a future beyond “Yellowstone.”
In an interview with Country Living, Cole Hauser, 49, who stars as Rip Wheeler on the hit ranch drama, said, “I’m so focused on finishing ‘Yellowstone’ the way it needs to be finished right now — well, just the show itself. We’ll see where that leads, but I know that there’s some stuff on the horizon when it comes to Taylor’s ideas for Kelly Reilly and myself and some of the other cast.”
The Paramount show, helmed by showrunner Taylor Sheridan, will end with the second part of Season 5, ending this fall.
The drama follows wealthy and powerful rancher John Dutton (Kevin Costner), and his adult children, including Kayce (Luke Grimes), Jamie (Wes Bentley) and Beth (Reilly), who is married to Rip.
There has been a spinoff announced that will star Matthew McConaughey; Hauser didn’t elaborate on whether he was referring to that show, or a different potential show for Rip and Beth.
“Yellowstone” went on a long hiatus during the historic writers and actors strikes. To make matters more complicated, Sheridan has had rumored behind-the-scenes conflicts with Costner and Hauser.
In May, news broke that Costner would not return to “Yellowstone” after Season 5. (This was before Paramount said that Season 5 would be the show’s last.) There were also reports that he refused to be on set filming for more than one week for the second half of Season 5 (Costner’s attorney denied that).
“My last conversation with Kevin was that he had this passion project he wanted to direct,” Sheridan told the Hollywood Reporter in June, referring to Costner’s epic Western movie, “Horizon,” which Costner put his own money into.
“He and the network were arguing about when he could be done with ‘Yellowstone.’ I said, ‘We can certainly work a schedule toward [his preferred exit date],’ which we did.”
Sheridan added, “Once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus … I sure hope [the movie is] worth it.”
More recently, Costner said that he would be open to finishing the final episodes of Season 5. “I’d like to be able to do it but we haven’t been able to,” he told “Entertainment Tonight.”
“I thought I was going to make seven [seasons of ‘Yellowstone’] but right now we’re at five. So how it works out — and I hope it does — but they’ve got a lot of different shows going on,” he went on.
“Maybe it will [work out]. Maybe this will circle back to me.”
Hauser and Sheridan, meanwhile, got into their own drama in November, when Hauser’s coffee brand, Free Rein Coffee Company, got sued by Bosque Ranch — which is owned by Sheridan.
The suit claimed that Free Rein uses “a brand mark strikingly similar to Bosque Ranch’s registered trademark, potentially misleading consumers,” according to San Angelo Live.
Both the caffeine company and the ranch use a similar logo, with the letters B and R intertwining.
Despite their off camera issues, Hauser praised Sheridan’s work.
“I’m excited to see where he goes creatively with that but right now it’s just, let’s finish strong; let’s do the best we can,” he told Country Living.
Regarding whether the final season will truly air in the fall, Hauser said, “God-willing — your lips to God’s ears.”
