Kevin Costner addresses why he left “Yellowstone”,“ ”reveals 'right circumstances' under which he'd return

"Material has to be ready at certain times, and we weren't able to do that," Costner said. "After five years, I thought, I'm not going to do this."

Kevin Costner is open to revisiting the frontiers of Yellowstone as John Dutton under "the right circumstances," he said on Monday's episode of Today.

The Oscar-winning star of the upcoming western Horizon elaborated on his unexpected exit from the popular Paramount Network drama, which he fronted five seasons of between 2018 and 2023.

"I did it for five years, and I wanted to work more than once a year. We lost an entire year at one point, and I thought, that can't happen again. It was well over a year. I thought I have to be in a position to make the things," he recalled, after host Savannah Guthrie inquired about the reasoning for his departure. "Material has to be ready at certain times, and we weren't able to do that. After five years, I thought, I'm not going to do this. If we can get that, we can do that, and I'll do it."

Related: Yellowstone final season begins production, will return in November

He continued: "I’ve supported that thing and I’ve loved it, it’s been really important to me. I would love to go back under the right circumstances. I think that's what all of us want. At this point, for me, it really needs to be the right circumstances."

Costner ended the interview by reiterating that there's "always a chance" for him to return to the world of Yellowstone because he had a deep love for the project, which was created by and largely written by Academy Award-nominated Hell or High Water filmmaker Taylor Sheridan.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Paramount Network for comment.

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In a prior interview with EW about Horizon earlier this year, Costner said he hadn't yet connected with Sheridan about Yellowstone's reported final season that's set to premiere in November, before the launch of a spinoff series, 2024 (without Costner), in December.

"He's doing special work in a lot of different ways. He's very prolific about the things he does, and if he sees me in something that he wants to do, I'll look at it just the way I did Yellowstone and maybe we will end up doing something together," Costner said. "He likes a lot of the things that I like, and the idea of us working together is not out of the question for me. The subjects he chooses are very interesting to me. I like a lot of that stuff. Yellowstone stands as something that could continue. But that is a Taylor question. But other things that he's doing I think are really, really good. He likes the same subjects that I do."

Costner's Yellowstone debut as Dutton came in 2018, with the show following his character as the leader of the Dutton family, which owns the iconic Yellowstone Dutton Ranch in Montana. The series chronicles various dramas at the ranch, including conflicts with developers and developments at the nearby Broken Rock reservation.

Horizon debuts in theaters in two parts, with the first opening on June 28, followed by the second installment on Aug. 16.

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