It’s hard to believe it’s been a little over a month since Paramount Network wrapped the final episode of Yellowstone. Critics have moved on to content on the 2025 TV schedule, but, the fans have not forgotten forgotten what happened in Season ,. as evidenced by some very salty comments tucked amidst a Happy Birthday message. Here’s what happened when the show sent a birthday message to longtime lead Kevin Costner this week.
The actor turned 70 on January 18, and the Yellowstone Instagram account marked the occasion with a post. This isn’t a particularly odd occurrence for the show’s social media page, as Yellowstone also wished actress Wendy Moniz “Happy Birthday” this week. They basically do this for everyone in the cast, so they couldn’t exactly skip Costner without it being a little sus. And as longtime lead John Dutton, Costner was very important to the series for a very long time, whether or whether not we like how John Dutton was killed off the series.
While a lot of fans did use the opportunity to wish Mr. Costner a very “Happy Birthday,” some couldn’t help themselves and got a little snarky on the post. The top comment, for example, was a joke about your “ex” wishing you a happy birthday. After it blew up multiple people responded, stating things like “facts” and noting the joke-y post was the “best one yet.” You can see some of the saltier fan comments below.
“When your ex wishes you a happy birthday 😂”
“This is wild wishing him a happy birthday after TS did him so dirty.”
“Y’ALL DID HIM SO DIRTY THE WAY YOU SENT HIM OFF …. SHAME”
“How they ruined the series with Kevin’s departure…”
“Yellowstone was not the same after he left.”
Fans had waited a long time for the final Season 5 episodes of Yellowstone to air, and there had been plenty of rumors in advance about what was going on with Costner’s exit on the show. He ended up leaving shortly after the series returned to the schedule (despite some wild Yellowstone theories to the contrary). In the time since, there’s been some chatter about possible changes to the Montana-set show’s ending based on when Costner wanted to leave and Luke Grimes even spoke about how easy filming the final season was. Needless to say, it’s still been a topic of conversation.
As for Costner himself, he’s said he’s open to collaborating with Taylor Sheridan again, and he did comment on the Yellowstone finale, though basically just to say he’s moved on with his life. He’s 70 this year and his focus of late has been continuing work on his planned Horizon movies after the first did not have an explosive run at the box office. But as he noted in his own birthday post, “Here’s to another year of keeping our sights set on our dreams.”
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Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.
