The Dutton family dealt with an attack on all fronts in the season 3 closer. John Dutton (Kevin Costner) was shot on the side of the road, his daughter Beth’s (Kelly Reilly) office was bombed and his son Kayce (Luke Grimes) took fire in his own office as gunmen ambushed him.

Wes Bentley, who plays John’s adopted son, Jamie, on the Paramount Network drama, considered the shocking finale a reset.

“When I read the script, I was like, ‘Oh?!’ With [cocreator] Taylor [Sheridan], we’ll be on a path down one way and he’ll cut the branches on the side so we’re going to tumble down with him,” the actor told Entertainment Weekly in August 2020. “I think big, big, dramatic things happen, violent things happen, and in a lot of ways it defines the show because that’s who gets the ultimate say. It comes down to that [brutality]. Outside of aliens landing, I don’t know where Taylor is going to go from here. He gave himself the ability to go from any angle now.”

Despite the major shifts ahead, Bentley noted that Sheridan’s moves leading into season 4 were coordinated. “To restart or refresh, he definitely has left himself an open door for a lot of options. I think that’s clever,” he continued. “He has a plan, so I think he was ahead of it. As an audience, it feels like the board got wiped and we can write some new things on that board.”

The season 3 cliffhanger caused a slew of fan theories to emerge, including some that pointed the finger at the Hunger Games star. “I love fan fiction and fans guessing,” he said. “I don’t go online, but I get told these things literally on the phone with my mom. I love that, and you know, fans get involved and have theories and we’re going to have a lot of fun with it. It’s going to be a blast to hear about what fans think as a community.”

Costner, meanwhile, has played coy about his future on the series in the year since the finale aired, but fans can expect to jump back into the action in the season 4 premiere.

“Where we pick up is right where we left off,” Bentley hinted in a September 2021 YouTube video. “The action of the scene is real time. My heart was pumping just reading it.”

It seems nothing is off the table in season 4 either. “It’s high stakes, high energy. It’s fast, it’s dangerous. It’s wild,” the American Beauty actor exclusively told Us Weekly in November 2021. “It’s very dangerous for Jamie and everyone else.”

Scroll through the gallery below to read everything we know so far about season 4 of Yellowstone.

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This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Erin Crabtree