After Kevin Costner, are other “Yellowstone” actors ready to leave the series? Three stars of the show entered into tense negotiations with production to demand a salary increase.
The soap opera surrounding the end of Yellowstone continues! Artistic and financial differences between series creator Taylor Sheridan and its lead actor Kevin Costner have already led to the premature end of the program.
The second part of the fifth and final season is supposed to be broadcast at the end of 2024, although filming has still not started.
To prepare for the end of YellowstoneTaylor Sheridan announced the creation of a brand new series entitled 2024, the main role of which could be entrusted to Matthew McConaughey.
Added to this are numerous prequels and spin-off productions, including the second season of 1923, but also the new releases 1944 and 6666 which will continue to explore the ruthless world of the western franchise.
Originally, 2024 was supposed to mark a completely new beginning and no actors from Yellowstone were supposed to star in this spin-off. But the Paramount+ platform wanted to feature faces already known to fans, in this case those of the Dutton “children” Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Kayce (Luke Grimes) as well as that of the iconic Rip (Cole Hauser).
A pay-or-play contract
The three actors have a pay-or-play contract guaranteeing them to get their salary for season 6 of Yellowstone, even if it never sees the light of day. Paramount therefore hopes to be able to use this contract year to make them appear in the 2024 series. But negotiations seem to have stalled, due to the trio’s salary demands.
In a position of strength, since their contract guarantees them to be paid in all cases, the latter would only agree to appear in 2024 with a significant increase in their salary.
Currently paid $700,000 per episode, Kelly Reilly is asking for $1.5 million per episode, while her acting partner Cole Hauser is asking for $1.25 million per episode.
Their demands go beyond the financial framework, since the interpreters of Beth and Rip demand that their names be the first mentioned in the credits. Which would imply that Matthew McConaughey’s would be placed after theirs.
According to several Hollywood insiders, Paramount would have sent an ultimatum to the three actors and would now be ready to shoot 2024 without them in the event of failure of negotiations.
All the series from the Yellowstone universe can now be found exclusively on Paramount+.
Discover the list of series currently available on the platform!