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Will ‘Yellowstone’ Season 4 Feature More Flashbacks Similar to Tim McGraw Scene?

New listings on IMBd point to Yellowstone Season 4 tying heavily into 1883. Will we be seeing more flashbacks in future episodes? Be warned, spoilers for Yellowstone and 1883 are ahead.

Courtesy of fan sleuthing on the Reddit Yellowstone board, new casting details have come to light. Specifically, the Dutton bloodline itself is being fleshed out. We’ve heard John Dutton speak of “7 generations” of his family tending their ranch. But the inclusion of a very young actor portraying “John Dutton Sr.” in 1883 may throw that off. Redditor 7ruby18 breaks it down:

“Just checked out the imdb site for “Y” and found two tidbits of info…

  1. They list John Dutton Sr. as being one of the two young boys in “Half The Money”. That means the 7-generation bit is out-of-whack. That would make KC’s John the third generation, Kayce the fourth and Tate the fifth.
  2. Spencer Dutton, the oher boy, is listed to make an appearance in S4-E7. I wonder what that flashback will be about.”

It does feel off to have the father of Kevin Costner’s John born prior to 1883, which is why this is most likely not the case. We meet him in a Yellowstone Season 2 flashback with a younger John Jr., and learn that John Sr., played by Dabney Coleman, is 90 at the time:

Kevin Costner plays his role (albeit with a mustache) in this flashback above, so we know it takes place after the 90s flashbacks in which actor Josh Lucas portrays the character. As a result, John Dutton Sr. would have been born in the early 1900s, presumably in the 1910s at the earliest.

‘Yellowstone’ Dynasty is Being Fleshed Out by ‘1883’ – But are Liberties Being Taken?

This would line up a separate John Dutton Sr. to be the son of Tim McGraw’s James Dutton in 1883. Specifically, that John Sr. would be the Kevin Costner character’s grandfather, placing James Dutton as his great grandfather, or possibly his great-great depending on how the lineage unfolds.

People lived fast and died young in the 1800s. 50 was a ripe old age for the average male two centuries ago. But a man born in the 1880s fathering a son in the 1910s in his 30s makes sense, giving credence to 1883’s toddler John Sr. being the grandfather to the John Dutton we know and love.

Yellowstone Redditor MaskedMexicanWrestlr speaks to this against 7ruby18’s logic of busting up the timeline:

“I don’t follow your logic on number 1. So we have John Dutton Senior, who has some sort of father, at some point in the past. We do not know that they were the first generation at the ranch. Do we know that Kevin Costner’s John Dutton was the kid of that John Dutton Senior in the flashback? You can name a “jr” after a grandfather, a great grandfather, etc. Sounds like you have made some assumptions that are not necessarily accurate. They could be right, but they do not have to be right, if you get what I mean.”

All of the above is speculation at this point, however. Here’s to hoping Yellowstone Season 4 continues with the 1883 flashbacks, shining light on the Dutton lineage.