Who would have thought that the life of a cattle rancher could make for entertaining television?
Since its launch in 2018, Yellowstone has had good ratings, gaining 16 million viewers for season 5a and becoming the most watched program in 2022. Led by the enigmatic patriarch John (Kevin Costner), the show follows the life of the Duttons. They are fighting to keep control of their remote Montana ranch.
There’s death, murder, betrayal and romance, and there’s more on the way. With season 5b to be released soon, here’s the lowdown on who’s back, and who they play.
Beth Dutton, played by Kelly Reilly
Paramount
John and Evelyn Dutton’s only daughter Beth is intelligent, cold and very calculating. A former high-flying finance executive, she became the farm’s executor after helping John cure cancer.
The only problem: Jamie isn’t going to go down without a fight, and actually the trailer promises tension and violence in spades. “The only thing to do is kill as many as you can before it kills you,” he said.
Kelly Reilly is an English actor. Born in London in 1977, he began his career when he wrote to the producers of the TV drama Prime Suspect (starring Helen Mirren) to ask for a job. Six months later he landed a role in Prime Suspect 4: Inner Circles, which aired in 1995.
Since then, she has starred in the 2005 film Pride & Prejudice, as Mary Morstan (as John Watson’s love interest) in 2009’s Sherlock Holmes and in the 2012 thriller Flight with Denzel Washington. She was also nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in After Miss Julie at the Donmar Warehouse in 2003.
Rip Wheeler, played by Cole Hauser
Rip is Beth’s husband, who is also the ranch foreman and sometime bruiser. He has sworn to defend the ranch with his life – and really shown in the trailer apparently forcing people to die. “Rip did a lot of killing,” Hauser told Parade before the start of the season, “I’ll tell you that.”
Hauser comes from a long line of acting royalty: his grandfather was Oscar-winning screenwriter Dwight Hauser, while his great-grandfather Harry Warner was a founding partner of Warner Bros.
Hauser himself left school at 16 to break into acting. He appeared in Good Will Hunting, Dazed and Confused, Olympus Has Fallen and Transcendence.
Kayce Dutton, played by Luke Grimes
Paramount
Kayce is the son of John and Evelyn. Like all the Duttons, she had a complicated relationship with her father and left the ranch after she felt John was pushing her away. He owns one of the largest cattle ranches in the US, which was given to him by John after he became Governor of Montana.
“It’s one of the most fulfilling things I’ve ever done, playing Kayce in the show,” Grimes told Holler ahead of the end of the show. “But it’s a challenge every year. So this season, it feels like another challenge – but we can do it. It’s a miracle that the show can stay in all that. (Kevin Costner) left only one more hump to get over. I Taylor wrote it’s good, and we did it. I think the fans will be very happy with the ending.
Grimes, who plays Kayce, is an American actor and musician. The son of a Pentecostal pastor, he appeared in the 2014 Bradley Cooper film American Sniper, in Taken 2 and as Christian Gray’s brother Elliot in the film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey. He also played vampire James Kent in True Blood in the sixth season, but left due to reports that he was uncomfortable with his character’s sexuality.
Jamie Dutton, played by Wes Bentley
Wes Bentley as Jamie Dutton
Paramount
Jamie is Kayce and Beth’s brother, who harbors a deep grudge against Beth. As an adopted son, he has a long relationship with his family, and the series 5a finale shows the brothers fighting and possibly plotting each other’s death. The trailer shows him getting out of the car with a gun, and we know he’s dead before then. Is Jamie out to kill Beth?
Bentley is an American actor, best known for playing Ricky Fitts in American Beauty (for which he received a BAFTA nomination) and Seneca Crane in the 2012 film The Hunger Games. He appeared as Doyle in Interstellar and Erik in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, as well as in a documentary about his own life. Titled My Big Break, it examines her rise to fame after American Beauty and her struggles with substance abuse afterward.
Monica Dutton, played by Kelsey Asbille
Kelsey Asbille as Monica Dutton
Paramount
Monica is Kayce’s wife. A Native American and a resident of the Broken Rock Indian Reservation, she found herself torn between marriage, the ranch and the desire to champion the cause of the people.
Asbille has appeared on the Disney XD sitcom Pair of Kings, played Gigi Silveri on the drama One Tree Hill and played Tracy Stewart on MTV’s Teen Wolf. His father, James Chow, is of Taiwanese American descent, and he claims to be of Cherokee descent, although this has been denied by the nation’s Office of Tribal Enrollment.
Thomas Rainwater, played by Gil Birmingham
Gil Birmingham as Thomas Rainwater and Mo Brings Plenty as Mo
Paramount
Thomas is the leader of the Broken Rock tribe, and owns the Gray Wolf Peak Casino. He also has a deep desire to take back the Yellowstone ranch, feeling the urge to reclaim what was lost from his ancestors.
Birmingham is an American actor of Comanche descent. Although he calls music his “first love”, he decided to become an actor after a spell as a petrochemical engineer. He appeared in the film Twilight as the Native American leader Billy Black, but also appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, House of Cards and the 2022 miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven, in which he played Detective Bill Taba.
Mo, played by Moses Brings Plenty
Mo is Thomas Rainwater’s driver and right-hand man, as well as a member of the Tribal police.
Brings Plenty was born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and is a descendant of Brings Plenty, a soldier who fought in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. He is a television, film and stage actor and a traditional drummer and singer. His nephew, Cole Brings Plenty, appeared in two episodes of the prequel series Yellowstone 1923 before his tragic death in April 2024.
Lloyd Pierce, played by Forrie J. Smith
Forrie J. Smith as Lloyd Pierce
Paramount
Lloyd is the oldest ranch hand at the Yellowstone ranch, and a fierce rodeo competitor. Smith, who plays him, actually has a background in rodeo: he grew up on his grandparents’ farm and competed in rodeos since he was 8. He once rode 17 horses and 11 cows in one day, and spent most of his adult life riding them. life on the rodeo circuit.
In the 1980s, his background influenced his decision to become a stuntman and he has appeared in many Western films and shows, including Rambo III, Desperado and Stagecoach.
Governor Lynelle Perry, played by Wendy Moniz
Lynelle is the Governor of Montana and a former Congresswoman. She likes John Dutton, and in the fifth season, he is elected Montana’s next US senator.
Perry started in the 1995 soap opera Guiding Light, where she played Dinah Marler, but she has since played Rachel McCabe in Nash Bridges, Elaine McAllister in the ABC drama Betrayal and Laura Moretti in House of Cards.
Will Kevin Costner show up?
Paramount
Despite playing the lead role of John Dutton III, Kevin Costner will not be returning after the season 5a finale.
According to Costner, he left because he and the studio behind the series failed to reach an agreement on his continued role in the show.
“I can’t help them,” someone said. “We tried to negotiate, they gave us less money than the previous season, there was a problem with the creative.”
“It truncates the closure of his character,” co-creator Tyler Sheridan told the Hollywood Reporter at the time. “It doesn’t change it, but it truncates it.”
Yellowstone will stream on Paramount+ starting November 10
