Inside Top-Secret Filming to Avoid Spoilers

How will Yellowstone end? Will John Dutton get taken to the “train station”? And, is this really the end?

All of these questions have been swirling ever since Paramount Network first announced that the second half of season five of Yellowstone would bring Taylor Sheridan‘s mega-hit Western series to a conclusion. Those questions were then compounded when the show’s star, Kevin Costner (who plays the family’s patriarch John Dutton), confirmed that he was exiting the series. (The “train station,” by the way, is the family’s code term for where they bury bodies of their enemies.)

Now, ahead of the highly anticipated Nov. 10 premiere of season 5B, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with director Christina Voros to get some of those answers. Voros is a veteran in the Yellowstone-verse, having directed on spinoff 1883 and next getting behind the camera for The Madison. She helmed four of Yellowstone’s forthcoming six episodes and became the script gatekeeper on set once writer/co-creator Sheridan clued her in on his plans, which she calls “unexpected and riveting.” In our chat below, Voros goes behind the scenes of the Montana-set series to reveal the complex production strategies that were put in place to keep the new — and maybe final? — season a surprise for viewers. “Half the cast doesn’t know what happens,” she says of their secretive approach. She also answers those big questions around Costner’s departure and if Yellowstone really plans to ride off in the end.

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You recently spoke about how secretive filming this season was in a video with the cast, where you talked about scripts being redacted and certain actors not knowing full scenes, which sometimes elicited real-time reactions as you were filming. Have you ever shot like this before?

No. This was new territory for all of us. We have some people in the crew who worked in the Marvel universe, and they thought what we were doing was crazy.

Wow. Yellowstone impressed the MCU.

(Laughs) Really, it was all borne out of protecting what Taylor and this cast and this family of creators has built over the years, and knowing how much anticipation there was for these scripts. The energy around it was more about protecting it for the audience than it was some clandestine thing, and we went to great, great lengths. We didn’t have a script coordinator; I took over that role and did the redactions for every cast member. Most of the cast only got the scenes they were in. So for a large portion of the cast, even for some of our seven-year veterans, they will be learning what happens when the show premieres.

You actually had the task of going through and figuring out what to hide from whom. How did you make those decisions?

In a strange way, we likened it to COVID protocols. What you don’t have access to won’t make you informed. So it was a tricky process because you can’t just give someone their lines — there’s information their character may have learned in other scenes. There was a certain amount of art that went into strategizing what information people had to be able to embody their characters, and know what their characters know without opening up any of the more sensitive material to people who didn’t need to know it. And it was never out of a fear of anyone in the family not protecting the story. It was more that, if you know something, you might accidentally mention it. We were just protecting the cast and crew from even having that information, so we didn’t have to worry about whether or not they were keeping some things secret.

So the process of redaction added a whole other layer; not only for me, but really for every department. Typically, the department gets the scripts and they share them with everyone in their team, everything from people doing clearances to people picking paint colors. So this strategy extended to not just getting scripts for actors, but also what needed to be shared within key crew and personnel to allow them to do their jobs without having to bear the weight of keeping secrets. I really have to give a shout out to everyone on our creative team, because it added several layers of work and strategic information sharing across every department.

Did that mean people were coming to you to ask you for more information as needed? I’m picturing you sitting on the Game of Thrones throne and seeing your subjects!

(Laughs) Yes, I was sort of the gatekeeper. At the beginning, myself and my first AD, Kether Abeles, were the only people who had access to the full scripts; the producers didn’t. There was a whole other layer of prep that went into preparing what people could have to prepare.

How many of these season 5B episodes did you direct?

I directed the first four out of six. Michael Friedman directed episode 513 and Taylor [Sheridan] directed the finale.

So you, Michael and, of course, Taylor (who writes all of the scripts), were in the know. How many others are now in your secret club?

Our department heads. The cast of the Duttons themselves are in the secret club. But for the most part, people knew the scenes they were in. So if they were in scenes where something happened that needed to be protected, they knew about it. But if they weren’t, about half the cast doesn’t know what happens this season, outside of their own work.

Did this prompt any reactions from the cast that were too big, because they were just coming upon the scene, that you had to reshoot?

No, it was funny… we employed several strategies over the course of shooting the season. We had code words for things. There were scenes where we had a lot of extras where we shot a different version of the scene. We’re so lucky to have so many great background artists come through the show and really make the world real for us — but you don’t want 150 people in an arena to go home and tell their families what they did that day. There were some places where cast learned variations of what their dialogue was to protect and divert from what people might think was happening.

We had very, very closed sets. We treated every scene really as if it was a closed set, so you had the same protocols as if you had nudity on set, where it was only key personnel at the monitors. When we would do blocking rehearsals, typically the cast runs the lines and the ACs put down marks. In these blocking rehearsals, we wouldn’t actually run the dialogue. The actors would move around the space, landing on their marks. But they wouldn’t actually say the dialogue, and only the people in the closed set would actually see the scenes. So, it was rather cloak and dagger.

It did add work for every department — each department head had to become the gatekeeper for their own team. A real challenge, and a layer in the beginning, was making it fun. We started to have fun with it at the end. We joked that we should have been filming the blocking rehearsals, because the cast got into it and there was a lot of laughter. But it was all in service of protecting the story for the audience.

Taylor Sheridan always keeps his scripts secretive. But was this heightened level of security around the scripts because of Kevin Costner’s exit? Was it because these were billed as the final episodes of Yellowstone? Was it because the show has become the No. 1 show on TV and that’s raised the stakes?

Yes. All of that. All of the things. It was a perfect storm, really. There’s so much anticipation. There was so much in the press about Kevin. And when you make a show that has such a beloved following, everyone is going to have their ideas about how it should end. I think Taylor has written something that is beautiful and surprising and unexpected and riveting. The cast this year, after seven years of shooting this show, has grown into these roles so deeply that the performances are really next level. You are dealing with a cast of actors who know their characters as well as Taylor does, and who have this entire lifetime of work that they have put into building these roles. The performances this year are just exceptional.

This season 5B was initially announced as the end of the flagship series of Yellowstone, but then there were recent reports that a sixth season is in talks with Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser. Did this feel like the end of Yellowstone when you were making it?

I think the degree of secrecy that went into it, the vibe was definitely that we were protecting a conclusion. As far as what the future holds? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.

Do you feel that the season’s ending leaves the show in a place where it could continue on, or do you feel satisfied with where you left it?

Both? When you create iconic characters like this, everyone has their own story that could continue. That’s true of most shows; most good shows. And that’s why in the last 10 years you see so many spinoffs, because there’s a character who stands out and you say, “Well, that character isn’t there anymore, but boy it would be interesting to see what this character does next.” I think when you build characters that are rich, multi-faceted and intriguing with a life force, if you’ve done your job correctly, each of those characters could sustain their own narratives.

So, spinoffs for all the Duttons! Though, we’ll see who survives… The midseason finale off preparing for an all-out Dutton family battle with dad John Dutton (Costner) and sister Beth Dutton (Reilly) on one side, and brother Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) on the other. The season trailer put other brother Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) on the outskirts of that. How does Kayce fit into this Dutton civil war?

Ironically, Kayce is the soldier. Those are his roots. So he is a fitting role to find himself fighting for something. I think Kayce has always been fighting for something. One of the beautiful things about this season is that the narratives of all the characters are really deeply intertwined. From the beginning of the show, the fight has always been for the land. There have been different adversaries who have come and gone, but at the end of the day, it’s always about the family banding together to fight for the land, to fight for the Dutton name.

John Dutton was a big part of that midseason finale. Then everything happened with Kevin Costner’s negotiations and ultimate exit from the series. The trailer did have John very much in it. How would you describe John’s presence in these episodes?

His presence is integral. I think to say any more than that would potentially compromise all the work that went into redacting the scripts! (Laughs) But I think the reason people are wondering, “Is he, isn’t he? Where is he, where is he not?” is because he is the patriarch and his presence is an essential component to the story. John Dutton is still central.

In our 2023 Taylor Sheridan cover story, while Costner’s exit from the show was still being negotiated, Sheridan said that he always had an ending in mind for John, but that his exit precipitated it. When you first saw how Sheridan handled it in these scripts, how did you react?

It made me feel really lucky to get to direct it. Taylor always has a sense of where something is going to end and the joy is watching him find how we get there. So all I can say is, when I read the scripts, I felt tremendously grateful to be a part of telling this chapter in the story.

Part of the fun of watching Yellowstone is never knowing what’s going to happen. With all eyes on these episodes, what are you hoping to elicit from viewers?

Since the dawn of narrative writing, there are certain stories that are good no matter how many times you hear them. Look at Shakespeare. Everyone knows what happens in Hamlet, but people are going back to watch it for centuries. Any good ending is both unexpected and inevitable. And I think Taylor managed to hit the bullseye in terms of doing justice to the story that he has built and the family that he has built, but doing it in such a way that is full of surprises.

Where are you in production now?

We’re in post-production. Edits are flying into the pipeline. I just did color correction on the first three episodes. I think everyone is very, very excited. We’ve been working on this so long; not just this season, but a lot of the crew has been with us from the very beginning. The Duttons are a family and Yellowstone is a family. And so there’s a tremendous amount of pride and excitement about bringing this out into the world after spending seven years of our lives together telling these stories.

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What was the vibe like on set when people would wrap their final scenes?

It was pretty emotional. There was a lot of nostalgia. That ranch; everyone has so many personal memories. My 40th birthday was my first or second day on the show’s first season. I was a camera operator, I didn’t know anyone. I was sitting up top in the rafters of the Great Room filming a scene with Wes [Bentley] and Kevin [Costner] going, “Wow, this is cool.” At the time, no one knew what it was going to become. It was a very talented group of people, many of whom had never made television before, getting the opportunity to tell this sprawling, epic story. Everyone has felt lucky to be a part of this show from the beginning. And, it’s evolved. I remember the difference between seasons one and two. Season one, we could all go out in Park City and have dinner together. Then in season two, the cast started getting noticed. Then by season three, we all had to hang out in each other’s houses because Kelly [Reilly] and Cole [Hauser] and Luke [Grimes] couldn’t walk down the street without people following them.

So, like any family, we’ve evolved. There have been weddings and babies and funerals. It’s been an entire cycle of life for this cast and crew, and because of the way the show is structured, we’ve had some tremendous visiting artists come through season-to-season, usually as a Dutton adversary, but the key family has remained the same. Much in the same way that their characters have gone through triumph and loss and joy and grief, every member of the cast and crew has been on that same trajectory together. There are a lot of memories, shared experiences; tough days, beautiful days, bad weather and, “Oh my God, I can’t believe we got that scene before the sunset.” There’s a whole story behind the story.

How was the set different without Kevin Costner?

I don’t know if we were without him. I don’t know!

This season kicks off after the U.S. presidential election. Yellowstone has tackled hot-button topics that are top of mind for voters this year: land ownership, representation onscreen with its Native storytelling and reproductive rights, among other topics. Will these episodes continue to hit on those, or is this more a more insulated family saga?

The beating heart of this season is family. Taylor’s writing always touches on those topics. It is impossible to divorce his writing style from the topical, it’s one of his superpowers the way he can weave those things into a story about character so you aren’t hit over the head with it. But I think in many ways, this season is full circle. It comes back to the family that it all began with.

You have directed other shows in the Yellowstone-verse, and next you will be working on The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer. When did you wrap on Yellowstone?

It feels like it was yesterday. I think the end of August.

So you get to go from Yellowstone into this next continuation series. What can you tease about The Madison?

We are going right from one into the other, pretty much with the same on-set crew. It’s like one train, just switching rails and continuing down the track. The Taylor train does not ease into a station to gently let you off! You are committed to hanging on for the journey, if you are lucky enough to be allowed a seat. So, The Madison a different show, but a lot of the creative family is the same. It’s a similar setting, but we’re seeing it through a very different perspective.

So to wrap it up, you would say that you want to leave viewers riding off thinking… what?

You want to leave them wanting more. A conclusion like this needs to feel satisfying, but you don’t want people to not miss Beth or Rip or Kayce. The cast on this show could not get enough praise for the characters they have embodied, because that’s what people have fallen in love with. Yes, the explosions and gun fights and the action. But at the end of the day, the core of this story are these characters. I want people to miss them. I want them to feel grateful for the journey they’ve been on with them. You want someone to be thinking, “Man, I wonder what Beth is up to these days?”

There’s always a weight on any show that’s coming to a conclusion. You want people to love it as much as you do. But when you have so many millions of people who are so invested on the show, you are never going to make everyone happy because everyone has their own dream of what happens. That is what’s exciting about the end of the season — the way Taylor has kind of unexpectedly drifted into a conclusion of the show that always leaves one space to wonder, what happens next?

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Yellowstone season 5B premieres on Paramount Network Sunday, Nov. 10, at 8 p.m., followed by an encore two hours later on CBS.