Piper Perabo led the cast arrivals at Thursday night’s big premiere for the long-awaited final chapter of Yellowstone in New York City.
The first episode of season five’s highly-anticipated second half will air Sunday, November 10 on Paramount +.
Plot details have been kept tightly under-wraps in wake of Kevin Costner‘s, who played Dutton family patriarch John Dutton, abrupt exit from the show this year.
For the NYC celebration, Perabo joined her Yellowstone co-stars on the red carpet ahead of a screening of the premiere episode.
The Coyote Ugly star, 48, stunned by going braless under a sheer black button-up blouse.
She styled the see-through top with classic black slacks and heels.
Perabo’s dirty blonde hair was swept up in a messy bun and she accessorized with gold earrings.
She joined the series in season four as environmental activist Summer Higgins, who eventually becomes John Dutton’s love interest.
Next, Kelly Reilly — who plays John Dutton’s troubled daughter, Beth Dutton — put on a sizzling display as she made her way on to the red carpet in a black strapless dress.
The sexy frock featured a mesh bodic and a daring front slit that showed off her toned legs.
The British star, 47, wore her flaming red hair in a sexy updo and made her blue eyes pop with smudged black eyeliner.
To complete her photo-ready look, Reilly decked herself out with silver rings and a moody maroon manicure.
She cozied up to her onscreen husband Cole Hauser, who plays fan-favorite Rip Wheeler on the Paramount+ hit.
The actor, 49, smoldered for shutterbugs in a black suit and dress shirt that he kept slightly unbuttoned.
Luke Grimes — who plays the youngest Dutton sibling, Kayce Dutton — looked like a rugged heartthrob as he posed up in a faded black suede blazer and white T-shirt.
The Fifty Shades Of Grey actor, 40, completed his outfit with black skinny jeans and shiny black boots.
Grimes — who recently welcomed his first child — put on a cozy display on the red carpet with co-star Kelsey Asbille, who plays Kayce’s Native American wife Monica.
Asbille, 33, looked radiant in a low-cut black silk frock with sheer white lace on the neckline.
She paraded around in black sandals and her cropped raven hair was tucked behind her ears.
Though she doesn’t star in the hit series, Brooke Shields looked thrilled to be celebrating Yellowstone’s final chapter in New York City.
The actress/model, 59, showed off her killer figure in a fitted rust-toned frock.
It had a plunging neckline and a modest cutout that flashed her toned tummy.
The Blue Lagoon star’s silky brunette hair tumbled down her chest in curls and she rocked retro eyeglasses.
As for jewelry, Shields opted for a glittering gold necklace, hoop earrings and a stack of bangle bracelets.
Unlikely Yellowstone fan Bethenny Frankel was also on hand for the finale festivities.
The RHONY alum, 54, looked phenomenal in a tight black turtleneck dress with a ruffled skirt.
She gave her petite frame a boost by slipping on a pair of sky-high black heels.
Frankel’s waist-length brunette hair looked sleek and shiny for the event.
The Skinny Girl founder rocked full glam makeup that featured fierce yet smokey winged eyeliner.
Her cheeks were dusted with a luminous pink blush that matched the tone of her lipstick.
Wes Bentley — who plays John Dutton’s eldest son and attorney, Jamie Dutton — looked sharp as he posed up in a stylish gray tweed suit.
The American Beauty star, 46, completed the outfit with a long-sleeve black shirt and black dress shoes.
Gil Birmingham — who plays Tribal Chairman Thomas Rainwater — looked suave in a navy blue paid suit and black button-up shirt.
Ian Bohen — who plays Ryan, one of several ranch hands working at the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch — flashed a smile while rocking an eye-catching white pinstripe blazer.
Brandi Cyrus, 37, put on a leggy display in a brown blazer dress styled with Western boots and a cowhide harness.
The second half of Yellowstone’s fifth season comes two years after the first part aired from November 2022 through January 2023.
The premiere episode — the first of six — will air exclusively on Paramount+ on Sunday, November 10, as fans hope to get some answers about the fate of the Dutton family and their legacy in Montana.
It marks the first chapter of the series without lead star Kevin Costner, who confirmed in June that he would not be returning to Yellowstone.
It was reportedly due to scheduling conflicts around his box office bomb Horizon, rumored pay disputes and a ‘feud’ with Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan.
At the time, Kevin uploaded a clip to social media and expressed to fans, ‘I just want to reach out and let you know that after this long year and a half of working on Horizon…’
‘And doing all the things that’s required, and thinking about Yellowstone – that beloved series that I love, that I know you love – I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue Season 5b or into the future.’
In regards to the show, the star added, ‘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.’
Kevin also opened up about announcing his exit from the show during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. ‘It wasn’t tough.’
‘It was a necessary decision to say, ‘Hey, OK, I don’t want to really talk about this anymore. It’s time to move on.’
‘I gave this thing five seasons. I was really happy to do it. And I don’t need drama. So, let’s just take that drama away, let’s take the guessing [away].’
‘The fans have been way too good to me. And my obligation is to go on and continue to make things that mean something to them,’ Kevin further told the outlet.
Little is known about the plot for Yellowstone’s final chapter, with Christina Voros —who directed four out of the six episodes for season five — recently revealing the extreme lengths production took to ensure the details remained under lock and key.
Speaking with THR, Voros revealed they used closed sets – the types employed during nude scenes where only a minimal amount of people are involved – to keep the story guarded.
‘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,’ she explained.
‘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.’
To keep the story a secret, Voros even served as script coordinator, and actors only received scripts for the scenes they were in specifically.
‘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,’ she said.
Not only were actors kept in the dark, but so were the behind-the-scenes crew.
‘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,’ she explained. ‘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.’
When filming in front of a large amount of extras, they even changed around the dialogue to avoid letting the many actors truly know what was going on.
‘There were scenes where we had a lot of extras where we shot a different version of the scene,’ she said. ‘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.’
Overall, the only people who were truly aware of the plot were Voros, creator Taylor Sheridan, department heads, and those playing the Dutton family.
Voros also admitted Costner’s departure was part of the reason they were especially protective over the scripts.
THR asked: ‘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,’ Voros replied. ‘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.’
