It’s probably not surprising to your average “Yellowstone” viewer that Kevin Costner earned a lot of cash while playing John Dutton on the drama. He has an Oscar-winning pedigree, after all. According to Puck, the actor’s participation came with a heavy price tag. Costner’s contract stipulated he be paid $1.2 million per episode for “Yellowstone” Season 5. That was expected to rise to $1.5 million if Season 6 had been greenlit. Since Season 5 is slated to have 16 episodes, Costner is set to make well over $16 million. Add onto that an overall deal with MTV Entertainment Studios, which would not have ended until 2025, and you have one rich cowboy on your hands.

All of that has been complicated by Costner’s ongoing battle with series producer Taylor Sheridan and Paramount Network, which means he will miss out on a hefty payday. With the actor slated to skip the back half of Season 5 and Season 6 out of the question, that’s a lot of money that won’t end up in his coffers. It’s no wonder that Puck reports he tried to recoup promotional fees back in Season 2, a request Sheridan was allegedly resistant to fulfill. But that’s not the only part of Costner’s Season 5 contract that might end up causing further waves as the show prepares to resume production.

A clause in Costner’s contract might complicate Season 5 of Yellowstone

As Taylor Sheridan tries to figure out how to weave John Dutton’s disappearance into “Yellowstone,” his art will be limited by another of Kevin Costner’s contractual demands — a moral death clause which, according to Puck, means Dutton can’t die in a variety of ways that would be considered defaming or embarrassing to the character’s legacy.

Sheridan has already admitted that he doesn’t want to give Dutton an unceremonious end. He told The Hollywood Reporter that Costner’s sudden departure from the show would “truncate” Dutton’s character arc but not change it. He then explained that he wouldn’t kill Dutton off suddenly. “I don’t do f***-you car crashes,” he said, recalling that his “Sons of Anarchy” character had been the victim of such a death. It seems that all’s fair in love, war, and television production — but audiences will have to wait a while to find out if Sheridan chooses to dispose of John Dutton or allows the character to disappear into the ether.