How much does the Yellowstone franchise need its original stars? We’re about to find out. This week will likely bring to a head a heated back-and-forth over the past few months as to whether Cole Hauser, Kelly Reilly, and Luke Grimes will return for the anticipated Yellowstone spinoff that will pick up after the flagship series. It’s getting ugly.

Yes, I know, another actor standoff on TV’s No. 1 show. It seems like only yesterday that I first revealed the assholic stylings of Kevin Costner, who informed Paramount executive Chris McCarthy and creator Taylor Sheridan about a year ago that script delays were causing his Yellowstone schedule to inconveniently bleed into his plans for Horizon, Costner’s two-part Western opus that will hit theaters this summer. After many overtures and ultimatums, Sheridan, in the parlance of the show, drove Costner to the train station, and wrote the upcoming post-strike back half of Season 5 without John Dutton. Costner, seemingly shocked that a television writer would stand up to him, then announced last summer at a hearing in his divorce litigation that he will “probably go to court” over the exit.