Kevin Costner Reflects on Life After Yellowstone: “It Doesn’t Have to Be a Western”

Kevin Costner is opening up about what’s next in his career after stepping away from Yellowstone and embracing his passion for storytelling — both on-screen and behind the camera.

The Oscar and Emmy-winning actor, 70, appeared at the U.S. premiere of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 during the 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 7, 2025. In a new interview released Monday, September 15, Costner shared that while Westerns have defined much of his recent work, he’s ready to explore other creative directions.

“It doesn’t have to be a Western,” Costner said. “It could be something else. When something is no longer interesting to me — or there’s another reason I need to move on — I’m willing to do that.”

Costner emphasized that for him, storytelling is about more than genre. “You can write a short story and it can live forever. You can write a novel and it can live forever. You can make a short movie and it can live forever. It’s about how you’re telling it,” he explained. “It’s about whether people will relate to it and be moved by it. That’s why certain books live with us, and we pass them on to our children.”

Since leaving Yellowstone — where his character, John Dutton, was written off in the second half of season 5 — Costner has shifted focus to his long-time passion project, Horizon: An American Saga, and his recent docuseries, Kevin Costner’s The West. The second Horizon installment premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last year, continuing Costner’s deep dive into the American frontier.

In The West, an eight-part docuseries that debuted in May on the History Channel, Costner explores what he calls “the real story of our wild past.” Reflecting on his work in films like Dances with Wolves, Open Range, and Horizon, Costner noted: “Everything that happened in those films actually happened out there. I didn’t make those stories up. There were interactions that happened a million times — and the documentary serves to back up those kinds of stories.”

“There were slaves and captives in the West. We misled Native Americans for our own good — and kept doing it, from one shore to the other,” he said. “The Western movies that I did, in my mind, are true. They are honest. They are real.”

As for what drives him now, Costner shared, “I think the hope for me is that I can stay relevant — not only to myself, but to people who find my work. I can’t create work that I think is going to find them. I can only create work that, when they do find it, reflects what I was feeling and my sensibility. And hopefully they’re moved by it.”

Despite his long and decorated career, retirement isn’t on the horizon. “I don’t even think about retiring,” he said. “I’ll just move to the next thing that captures my imagination.”

Reflecting on his journey, Costner added, “We’re all different and we all have different things happening for us. I’ve felt really lucky in my life. I’d like to think I worked for all of it — but not everyone can live by the same blueprint.”