'Yellowstone’ Director: Crew Went ‘Great Lengths’ to Protect Final Scripts

Yellowstone director Christina Voros revealed the secrecy surrounding the final season goes all the way to the top — and she was the “gatekeeper.”

“Half the cast doesn’t know what happens,” Voros told The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday, November 5, explaining that she and creator Taylor Sheridan decided to keep the final six scripts under lock and key.

Voros, who directed four of the six episodes for part 2 of the farewell season, said, “It was all borne out of protecting what Taylor and this cast and this family of creators has built over the years, and knowing how much anticipation there was for these scripts.”

She continued, “The energy around it was more about protecting it for the audience than it was some clandestine thing, and we went to great, great lengths.”

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Instead of using a traditional script coordinator, Voros said she “took over” and did “redactions for every cast member” to keep the plot private.

“Most of the cast only got the scenes they were in,” she shared. “So for a large portion of the cast, even for some of our seven-year veterans, they will be learning what happens when the show premieres.”

Voros noted that when they started shooting the back end of the season, only she and her first AD, Kether Abeles, had access to the scripts. Producers and cast members were kept in the dark until they came to set to shoot.

Sheridan, who writes all the scripts, was part of Voros’ exclusive club from the start, as was director Michael Friedman.

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“The cast of the Duttons themselves are in the secret club,” Voros said, referring to the leads. “But for the most part, people knew the scenes they were in.”

Yellowstone follows the Dutton family, led by patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his kids, Beth (Kelly Reilly), Jamie (Wes Bentley) and Kayce (Luke Grimes).

When Costner, 69, announced in June that he was not returning for 5B, Voros said it heightened the team’s choice for privacy for the end of the potential series. (The first half of season 5 concluded in January 2023.)

“It was a perfect storm, really. There’s so much anticipation. There was so much in the press about Kevin,” Voros said. “And when you make a show that has such a beloved following, everyone is going to have their ideas about how it should end.”

The director called the final chapter “beautiful and surprising and unexpected and riveting,” partially because it’s the end of an era. (Voros noted that she doesn’t know whether there will be a season 6 after rumors surfaced that Reilly and Cole Hauser could lead more episodes.)

“You are dealing with a cast of actors who know their characters as well as Taylor does, and who have this entire lifetime of work that they have put into building these roles,” Voros gushed. “The performances this year are just exceptional.”

The cast’s ability to thrive without prying eyes was made possible because of Voros’ determination to keep everything separate. That included treating every scene as a “closed set.”

“We had code words for things. There were scenes where we had a lot of extras where we shot a different version of the scene,” Voros recalled. “We’re so lucky to have so many great background artists come through the show and really make the world real for us — but you don’t want 150 people in an arena to go home and tell their families what they did that day.”

To avoid a leak, she said, “There were some places where cast learned variations of what their dialogue was to protect and divert from what people might think was happening.”

Voros compared the set rules to “COVID protocols” where if someone didn’t have access, they couldn’t spill the details.

“It was never out of a fear of anyone in the family not protecting the story. It was more that, if you know something, you might accidentally mention it,” the filmmaker explained. “We were just protecting the cast and crew from even having that information, so we didn’t have to worry about whether or not they were keeping some things secret.”

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When it comes to what fans will see when season 5 returns on Sunday, November 10, Voros wouldn’t say whether John will be taken to the “train station,” i.e. killed and buried by the Duttons. However, she teased that John will be “integral” in the final episodes.

“I think to say any more than that would potentially compromise all the work that went into redacting the scripts!” Voros laughed. “But I think the reason people are wondering, ‘Is he, isn’t he? Where is he, where is he not?’ is because he is the patriarch and his presence is an essential component to the story. John Dutton is still central.”

She added, “The beating heart of this season is family. Taylor’s writing always touches on those topics. … I think in many ways, this season is full circle. It comes back to the family that it all began with.”

Yellowstone 5B premieres on Paramount Network Sunday, November 10, at 8 p.m. with an encore two hours later on CBS.