While Yellowstone fans are still desperate to know if Kevin Costner truly isn’t returning as John Dutton for Season 5’s final episodes, recent updates about the show’s future have been largely positive. The long-delayed remaining eps are debuting in November 2024, with two more spinoffs officially joining the lineup of upcoming Yellowstone projects, next year and beyond. So there’s lots to look forward to, but now we have an alleged inkling of what the flagship western’s story would have brought to the narrative had Season 6 come to fruition: the introduction of a long-lost Dutton sibling, as portrayed by a country star.
That’s right, this wild update came straight from Christian music star Cory Asbury, who first teased back in July that he was asked to be part of Yellowstone’s sixth season. The Grammy-nominated singer then shared the bombshell details behind the role during an Instagram Live Q&A with Taste of Country, saying it went as far as him having conversations with his wife and kids about temporarily shifting locations for filming purposes. In his words:
I was supposed to be Kayce’s long-lost brother. We were gonna move to Montana for a full year. We were ready.
That is bonkers news to hear at a point where we know Season 6 isn’t happening. Ever since Season 1, Yellowstone has been clear about John Dutton having four kids: Lee, Beth, Kayce, and Jamie, with the latter being adopted. I’ll be honest: I never ever contemplated the concept of there being another sibling out there in the wild, and definitely didn’t expect for that to be a reveal shaking things up so late in the show’s run.
What makes it more interesting, at least in terms of the specifics that Cory Asbury addressed, is the way he only says he’d have played Kayce’s long-lost brother. Asbury said that after the initial convos about the role were had, he was set to meet up with Luke Grimes and Taylor Sheridan in person, but that’s around the time when everything went to hell behind the scenes, and the disagreements between Sheridan and Kevin Costner came to light. So it could be that because the Kayce actor was part of that meeting, he only used that character’s name.
But what if there was a reveal tied into that long-lost sibling that pointed to Kayce having a different mother than Beth or Lee? There’s also the idea that Asbury’s character would have been put up for adoption, but that wouldn’t directly address the Kayce-ness of it all. This is all pure conjecture, of course, though the continuation series 2024 could technically pick up the narrative threads from this idea if Sheridan & Co. wished it so.
That hypothesis might not hold any water now, however, with Asbury stating he was going against the producers’ wishes by saying anything about the role publicly, feeling that it doesn’t matter as much now since it’s a bygone opportunity. So if there was a plan to return to the long-lost sibling reveal, it likely wouldn’t happen with the original details still in place.
Power to Cory Asbury’s family for being down to move up to Montana for a year so that he could join the Dutton clan. It’s quite the sacrifice, but one that has drawn in several musicians to the Dutton family’s world, not even counting Kevin Costner’s band Modern West or Luke Grimes’ showing off his country crooning skills of late. Yellowstone has boasted Ryan Bingham for years, with and recent CMA Entertainer of the Year Lainey Wilson joining the series in Season 5. And let’s not forget 1883’s co-leading icons Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Which is all to say Asbury would have likely felt right at home within this world. Here’s hoping another opportunity opens up in the future.
Yellowstone remains one of TV’s most popular shows, thanks to the first two seasons finding new viewers through re-airings on CBS on Sunday nights, as well as all current episodes being available to stream with a Peacock subscription.