Is Yellowstone Ending With Season 5?

Yellowstone season 5 is expected to be released sometime in early 2022 or late 2023 – and there’s a chance that this could be the show’s final season. Currently, there’s no word yet from Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan on whether or not the upcoming fifth season will be the last installment in his acclaimed neo-Western series. However, there’s evidence that it could be, especially considering how the Yellowstone season 4 finale leaves the show’s main characters.

By the end of Yellowstone season 4, the one-sided fight between Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Jamie (Wes Bentley) had gone on for too long. This will likely end with Beth being right about Jamie, who probably has one more betrayal in him before this sibling rivalry goes stale and Rip (Cole Hauser) eventually decides to take Jamie “to the train station.” There’s also no bigger threat to both the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch and the Broken Rock Indian Reservation than Market Equities, which plans to build a city in the valley – another fight that needs to be resolved soon. As for John Dutton (Kevin Costner), he is likely to win the election for Montana’s governor, but if John’s cancer rears its ugly head again, he might not survive it this time.

Yellowstone season 5 is the perfect time for all of these main story lines to finally be resolved. In fact, Kayce Dutton’s (Luke Grimes) vision quest in the Yellowstone season 4 finale seems to be setting up the show’s final act. After Kayce underwent a vision quest with help from Broken Rock Chief Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and Mo (Moses Brings Plenty), it’s clear that Kayce will need to choose between being a Dutton, and being a member of his wife Monica’s (Kelsey Asbille) tribe. Apart from allowing Kayce to realize that he’ll need to make this difficult decision soon, Kayce’s visions are also filled with foreshadowing about death and the Duttons’ haunted past. In short, there’s a real chance that Yellowstone season 5 will be the last season of the show, as everything seems to be building up to the perfect storm.

Moreover, Yellowstone isn’t the only show that Sheridan is working on. There’s the Yellowstone prequel spinoff series 1883, which is a period drama that tells the story of how the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch began. Currently, Sheridan seems most focused on fleshing out the upcoming spinoff 6666, which will be about Texas’ famous Four-Sixes Ranch. As the world that Sheridan created with Yellowstone organically resulted in these spinoffs, it would make sense if Sheridan eventually decides to end Yellowstone and focus on expanding his contemporary Western universe instead.

Yellowstone season 5, whether or not it’s the last, is bound to be the most explosive season yet. For now, fans of the show can check out the above-mentioned Yellowstone spinoffs for their neo-Western fix. While Yellowstone could end soon, these spinoff shows allow Sheridan’s vision to flourish beyond the borders of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.