Yellowstone Season 5 featured a number of shocking character deaths, including Kevin Costner’s John Dutton – but Colby actor Denim Richards only got the heads up a day before getting the scripts.
After what felt like an age, Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2 finally premiered in November, drawing Taylor Sheridan’s flagship Western series to a close the following month with an explosive finale.
Beth and Jamie’s feud came to a bitter end, with the former killing her adoptive brother with help from Rip. As for the Dutton Ranch, Kayce sold it to Thomas Rainwater and the Broken Rock Tribe.
While many of the deaths were expected, one who many felt didn’t deserve their fate was Colby – and apparently it was a bit of a shock for the ranch hand’s actor, Denim Richards.
Colby actor got one day heads up about Yellowstone death
In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly about Colby’s death, Richards said, “I found out I think about maybe a day before they sent me the scripts.
“I was actually flying back from Texas and I got the call that this was what was going to be happening. So this had to have been back in May.”
Although it must have felt abrupt, the Yellowstone star doesn’t feel resentful towards the writers of the show.
“So much of our lives have been tied to this amazing show for so long, but the job in and of itself, when you deduce it down to its simplest form, is to serve the story and to hopefully be living a real experience and you kind of get over the pride and the ego a little bit, and serve the story,” he explained.
“That’s what I hope that we were able to do with Colby the last five seasons.”
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Colby was killed in Season 5 Episode 12 by a bucking horse while trying to save Carter, a move that Richards said shows the reality of cowboy life.
“I feel like this season, Taylor [Sheridan] is really emphasizing the realities of cowboy life,” he continued.
“We have this saying that everyone’s going to fall off a horse at some point in their life. It’s not if, it’s just when and how bad.
“That is not a phenomenon. These things do happen, so I do think that there’s that element where I think it is about really wanting to emphasize that this is a reality.
“It’s kind of poetic because in Season 3, Colby gets trampled by a horse multiple times in the river. And so maybe this was those horses’ ancestors coming back to get retribution. But more than anything, it was about as clean as you could possibly do a death.”
The death scene was shot over a “couple of weeks” due to delays caused by weather, which Richards found a “little bit challenging.”
But overall he’s happy with the outcome of the final chapter. Plus, as he pointed out, “the cowboy life definitely isn’t for the faint of heart.”
For more from the Yellowstone world, check out our guides to 6666, 1944, and The Madison.
