Kevin Costner’s time as Yellowstone patriarch John Dutton came to a swift and unexpected end when he failed to return for the series ending, and it’s possible his most recent character will meet a similar fate in the Horizon: An American Saga franchise. Costner famously left the hit Western show in order to pursue his epic four-part movie series, which ᴀssembled a staggeringly loaded cast in several stories that were intended to be woven together across the four movies. However, the first chapter of Horizon: An American Saga flopped at the box office, casting doubt on the series’ future.
Costner has a significant personal stake in the series, as he put forth more than $30 million of his own money to finance its production. In addition to writing and directing the entire Horizon series, he also stars as Hayes Ellison, the loner cowboy who finds himself entangled in someone else’s story of vengeance. Despite his better judgment, he steps in to defend the innocent and is rewarded with a desperate flight across the Old West from a murderous family of outlaws. As a result, the reluctant hero could be headed for a similar fate to Costner’s famous TV character.
It Makes Sense If Kevin Costner’s Hayes Eventually Dies In Horizon
His Loner Cowboy Character Feels Like A Doomed Hero
Given how sprawling the cast, the timeline, and the geographical space is that the Horizon saga will cover, it’s inevitable that some of the major players will meet their end at the brutal hands of the Old West. While there were already several key deaths, including Jamie Campbell Bower’s Caleb Sykes (who died at the hands of Kevin Costner’s Hayes Ellison), there are undoubtedly more coming. Hayes Ellison makes a ton of sense to be one of the characters who meets the reaper by the end of the four-part series due to his status as a reluctant protector.
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Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Key Details |
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Budget |
Box Office Gross |
RT Tomatometer Score |
RT Popcornmeter Score |
Metacritic Score |
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$50 million |
$38.7 million |
71% |
70% |
49 |
By the end of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, Marigold abandoned Hayes and the baby in their care, Sam, proving no good deed goes unpunished. The Sykes family is still presumably after Hayes and the infant Sam, and it makes sense that the cowboy meets his end protecting either Sam, Lucy, or Marigold. It provides the opportunity for Costner’s character to get a memorable Western movie death, which would not elevate the dramatic impact of the entire saga and give the Oscar winner a moment that he denied viewers by exiting Yellowstone.
John Dutton’s Death In Yellowstone Was A Disappointment
Costner Didn’t Return For The Series’ Ending, Putting Writers In A Bind
While there have been conflicting reports about whether Costner and Yellowstone‘s creator, Taylor Sheridan, intended the Western narrative to go seven seasons, it all became moot when Costner abandoned the show halfway through season 5 to chase his pᴀssion project. As a result, Sheridan and the show’s other writers were put in the unenviable position of having to kill off one of the most recognizable TV characters of the 2020s off-screen. While they did an admirable job given the circumstances, the closure to John Dutton’s story was disappointing, which was expected with an off-screen death.
A tragic and well-executed death for Hayes Ellison would at least be a modest step in the right direction towards making up for John Dutton’s disappointing death.
The show was forced to wrap up all of its characters’ story lines in just half a season, resulting in unsatisfying conclusions and major characters being underutilized. The ending to Horizon: An American Saga offers a half-measure of redemption for Costner, as he has the opportunity to at least wow Western movie fans with the project he left Yellowstone for. A tragic and well-executed death for Hayes Ellison would at least be a modest step in the right direction towards making up for John Dutton’s disappointing death.
The Biggest Obstacle Is Getting Horizon Movies Made & Released
The Franchise’s Future Is Riddled With Uncertainty
Unfortunately, audiences may never actually get the satisfying conclusion they’re looking for with the Horizon saga. Together, the first two chapters of the series cost $100 million to produce, and the first chapter only generated a shockingly low $38 million at the box office. Costner’s controversial decision to release both movies within the same summer was cast aside after the first chapter’s disappointing debut, and while it did produce good streaming numbers once it landed on Netflix, it remains to be seen whether that additional audience helps the second chapter perform any better at the box office.
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 debuted in theaters on June 28th, 2024, and the second chapter was originally scheduled to hit theaters on August 16th, 2024, just over six weeks later.
As of now, the second chapter is planned for release at some point in 2025, although a specific date has not yet been announced. It technically debuted at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in September 2024, but lackluster reviews from that screening cast further doubt on the series’ future. Costner will be hard-pressed to find enough financial backing to finish his four-part series unless the second movie in the Horizon: An American Saga franchise far exceeds its predecessor at the box office, and as a result Hayes Ellison’s story may meet a similarly unsatisfying end like Yellowstone‘s John Dutton.
