00:00Yellowstone returned Sunday night and quickly revealed the fate of Kevin Costner's character
00:04John Dutton, following the actor's exit from the show. We're breaking down just
00:08what happened during the premiere and how producers kept the big secret.
00:13WARNING! MAJOR YELLOWSTONE SPOILERS AHEAD! Right out of the gate, Sunday's premiere revealed that
00:18John Dutton has indeed died, and it initially appears that he has taken his own life.
00:23However, it turns out Sarah Atwood, the fixer-girlfriend of estranged Dutton brother
00:27Jamie, put a hit out on John following the explosive midseason finale and instructed
00:32her murder-for-hire to make John's death appear to be a suicide. Sunday's episode
00:36ended with Beth vowing once again to kill Jamie. Executive producer Christina Voros,
00:41who directed The Hour, told The Hollywood Reporter how the show kept the big reveal a secret.
00:46We didn't talk about it as a death. Anytime there is a death or some sort of event,
00:50we called it an arrival. And we gave John's character a pseudonym. We called him Crosby.
00:55We were calling the opening scene, Beth discovers that Crosby has arrived.
00:59It was on the call sheets and the crew were like, who is Crosby and where's he coming from?
01:03As for the origin of the pseudonym, she said,
01:06I did some random research. John Skyler Crosby was the last governor of Montana before Montana
01:11was turned into a state in the 1800s. It was a very random, obscure, esoteric reference by
01:16Taylor Sheridan. Ahead of the big reveal, the cast spoke to THR at their red carpet premiere
01:21for part two of season five about how they thought the show's audience might react to
01:25John Dutton's fate. I think like the rest of us, they're going to be
01:29bummed. You know, that's a big presence. That's Kevin Costner. He's an icon.
01:34He's John Dutton. He's the he's the rock, the patriarch of the family.
01:38And it's hard to imagine the show without him. But that was always where the show was headed. It was
01:43can these kids do it without him? You know, so we all knew it was going to get there. We just didn't
01:48know how or when. And clearly it was different than we thought. But what it did do was ramp the
01:54show up to a 10. And now, you know, everything starts to unravel. You know, it's going to be
02:00difficult. I think a lot, you know, a lot like for Jamie, whose his whole focus in the world was on
02:05John Dutton. And I think at times the show feels like that. And, you know, we definitely we miss
02:10him. He's a huge part of the show and a great guy to have around and wonderful to work with. And so,
02:16you know, I wish him all luck in the world, but we definitely miss him.
02:19As for what viewers can expect from next week's episode, Voros said,
02:22I think there's a lot to unravel. There is a map that has to be drawn as to how to move forward.
02:27And I think the next episode begins to outline the way that map is drawn.
02:31For much more on this story, go to THR.com. This is The Hollywood Reporter News.
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