Yellowstone’s Ian Bohen Talks Kevin Costner Exit: ‘We Lost Our Quarterback But Still Have to Play’ (Exclusive)

Yellowstone star Ian Bohen is opening up about the show’s next chapter after Kevin Costner’s exit from the series.

“I would use the analogy of a football team. If your quarterback gets hurt and he has to come out of the game, you have to play. So you gotta figure out another way to run the ball or throw the ball or just do different things because you can’t quit,” Bohen, 48, exclusively told Us Weekly on the red carpet at the 2024 CMA Awards on Wednesday, November 20. “So that’s what happened. We lost our quarterback and we still have to play the game.”

Bohen, who plays rancher Ryan in the western drama, continued, “There’s a lot of other people there and families and the whole world around it and the stadium and everybody has to go to work. So what are you gonna do? Well, you gotta figure it out. So that’s what we do. We found a way to figure it out.”

Following months of speculation about whether Costner — who portrays patriarch John Dutton — would appear in Yellowstone’s final episodes of season 5B, he confirmed his exit from the drama in June. Yellowstone’s season 5B premiered on November 13.

“After this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all of the things that’s required, and thinking about Yellowstone, that beloved series that I love and I know you love,” Costner said in a video shared via social media at the time. “I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue season 5B or into the future. It was something that really changed me. I loved it. And I know you loved it. I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning. I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop, and I’ll see you at the movies.”

For Bohen, Costner’s exit has been a transition. “You get into a certain level of comfort and understanding and when it’s altered, it’s a little bit of a bump,” he told Us on Wednesday. “But like anything, you just put your helmet on and you’re like, ‘I gotta go catch the next pass.’ So you can’t really dwell on it too much.”

While reflecting on the success of the series, Bohen — who shared that he wanted to be a cowboy since he was a child — gushed that Yellowstone has been “quite the phenomenon.” He noted that he has constant pinch-me moments, equating the experience to “being at Disneyland” on a daily basis.

“We didn’t know what it was when we started it,” he told Us. “You have this idea and you hope for the best, but you never imagine it’s gonna affect people the way that it has and reach so many people and have the response. So then we have a responsibility to service that and to try to keep it going and keep it fresh and take care of the people that we make it for, which is the ranchers and the farmers, and service them.”

Bohen credited the entire Yellowstone team for being able to make the show what it’s become. “We’ve got a great cast and crew and writers and directors to help us do it,” he said. “So we’re just working our butts off to make sure we don’t miss a step.”

Yellowstone airs on Paramount Network Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.

With reporting by Aria Parker