The Yellowstone franchise is at a turning point now that its flagship series has come to an end. Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western follows the Dutton family as they fight ruthlessly to protect their land from enemies closing in from all sides. After an acclaimed run beginning in 2018, Yellowstone came to an end with a fifth and final season, culminating in the final battle for the Yellowstone-Dutton Ranch. However, the franchise remains a television juggernaut, with new spinoffs and sequel series on the way to keep invested audiences in Sheridan’s ever-expanding world.
Kevin Costner leads Yellowstone’s ensemble cast as John Dutton III, the patriarch of the Dutton family who runs the Ranch like his father and grandfather before him. Throughout the show’s run, John is an immovable object, determined to give up even an inch of the land he inherited from his forefathers. However, he finds himself facing new enemies seeking to take over his ranch, from Native American tribes to greedy land developers. Through it all, John remains a bastion of sheer willpower, never faltering from his prime directive. Costner’s character stands out as one of the strongest personalities in Yellowstone’s cast, though he actually proves to be a rather simply individual. A single line from the series gives fans all they need to know about the Dutton family patriarch.
1 Line Summarizes John Dutton’s Simple But Strong Character
John Dutton Believes In Hard Work and Loyalty
As the patriarch of the Dutton family, John keeps order on the ranch, ensuring that he can trust everyone that he brings to live there. One way that he ensures that his employees will be loyal to the ranch is by branding them with the Yellowstone-Dutton ranch emblem. This brand means that they will always have a place on the ranch, but also requires that they remain there forever unless specifically given leave by John himself. The Duttons are extremely picky about who they allow to take the brand, only giving it out to ranch hands who have proven themselves. When asked about this practice, John makes a very important clarification, saying “The brand isn’t something you earn, it’s something you live up to.” In this line, fans learn everything they ever needed to know about John Dutton and how he looks at the world.
The brand isn’t something you earn, it’s something you live up to.
John fiercely believes in loyalty and reliability, prizing these qualities above most others. The Duttons did terrible things at John’s command because he had trained them to follow orders, putting loyalty above even human decency and morality. The ranchhands working on the Yellowstone followed suit, putting their lives in the hands of the Duttons even if they weren’t related by blood. When someone receives the brand, it signifies that they are willing to do anything John may command them to do, even if it goes against everything they may have once stood for. Those who receive the brand must live up to their new calling, becoming the protectors of the ranch even at the expense of their own lives. John presents a simple view of the world, expecting those who work for him to adopt it as well. No one can earn the brand, but they can live up to everything it stands for by serving the Duttons loyally and without question.
John Dutton Was Yellowstone’s Strongest Character
Kevin Costner Was the Standout of Yellowstone’s Cast
John Dutton is one of Taylor Sheridan’s best-written characters and the strongest character in Yellowstone. Although audiences typically prefer dynamic characters who grow and change over time, there is also something fascinating about those who remain static, forced to change by the story’s end. John is an example of the latter, remaining pretty much the same man he was at the beginning of the series for all five seasons. John begins Yellowstone as a fierce protector of his family’s land who refuses to capitulate to his many enemies despite increasingly insurmountable odds. Although he does learn some lessons along the way, everything he learns only strengthens his worldview over time. John never fails in doing what he believes to be right, even if it proves horrifying to viewers at home. While they may not agree with John on most things, fans can’t help but admire him for his tenacity and staunch refusal to ever give in to pressure.
While audiences fell in love with characters like Kayce, Beth, and Rip over the years, it is John Dutton who helped make Yellowstone a hit series. Kevin Costner’s character is the foundation on which Yellowstone is built, providing an unshakable base on which other characters can grow and flourish–all while he remains ever the same. John Dutton, therefore, stands out as Yellowstone’s best character, even if he doesn’t grow and change along the way. It is his resoluteness that helps make him stand out as a compelling protagonist, weathering every storm without moving an inch.
Yellowstone’s Final Season Didn’t Do Justice to John Dutton
Kevin Costner’s Abrupt Yellowstone Exit Wrecked John Dutton’s Character
Unfortunately, Yellowstone didn’t do justice to its premiere character. In the Season 5B premiere, John Dutton is brutally murdered in the governor’s mansion when assassins hired by Market Equities executive Sarah Atwood break in and shoot him in the head. While Taylor Sheridan has implied that he had always planned to kill off John before the finale, the storyline was undoubtedly expedited after Kevin Costner left the series in 2024. Costner’s departure forced Yellowstone to quickly kill John off in the opening minutes of its next episode, bringing an abrupt end to all of the character’s ongoing storylines. While this was the best that Sheridan and his team could have done under the circumstances, John’s fate doesn’t do him justice. The once powerful man who served as the show’s focal point suddenly disappeared from its story, leaving the next few episodes feeling undercooked and rushed. The show stumbles into a mostly satisfying finale, but could have been so much more had Costner stuck around to properly end his character’s storyline.
While there have been rumors that Kevin Costner could return as John Dutton one last time, it seems unlikely that he and Sheridan will ever work together again after their falling out. This means that John will never get a proper ending to his five-season storyline, with the last that audiences ever see of the once-proud and prominent character being his brutal death at the hands of masked assassins. This is a brutal and tragic way to see Yellowstone’s best character go out, leaving audiences unsatisfied with his story by the series finale.
