Yellowstone Director Reveals Marvel-Level Secrecy Measures for Season 5 Scripts

Leading up to the highly-anticipated fifth season’s return, Yellowstone director Christina Voros opened up about the extreme measures taken to maintain secrecy around the show’s scripts, with some crew members comparing it to Marvel’s level of confidentiality.

“We have some people in the crew who worked in the Marvel universe, and they thought what we were doing was crazy,” Voros told The Hollywood Reporter, shedding light on the meticulous process to guard against spoilers.

Voros emphasized that the intense secrecy stemmed from a desire to protect the story for fans. “Really, it was all borne out of protecting what Taylor [Sheridan] and this cast and this family of creators has built over the years, and knowing how much anticipation there was for these scripts,” she explained. The efforts included not having a script coordinator, with Voros herself handling redactions. “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 added.

The director shared that they treated script confidentiality almost like COVID-19 protocols. “What you don’t have access to won’t make you informed,” Voros noted. The production team carefully determined which details were essential for actors to embody their roles without revealing sensitive plot points.

“There was a certain amount of art that went into strategizing what information people had to be able to embody their characters, and know what their characters know without opening up any of the more sensitive material,” she elaborated, adding that it was never about mistrust but preventing accidental slips.

The secrecy extended beyond the cast to the entire crew, affecting how scripts were shared within departments. “Typically, the department gets the scripts and they share them with everyone in their team,” Voros said. “So this strategy extended to not just getting scripts for actors, but also what needed to be shared within key crew and personnel… I really have to give a shout out to everyone on our creative team, because it added several layers of work and strategic information sharing across every department.”

They even used closed-set protocols usually reserved for filming nude scenes. “We had very, very closed sets… so you had the same protocols as if you had nudity on set, where it was only key personnel at the monitors,” Voros detailed. Blocking rehearsals were done without running actual dialogue to ensure no leaks. “The actors would move around the space, landing on their marks. But they wouldn’t actually say the dialogue,” Voros said, showcasing the lengths taken to keep everything under wraps.

These meticulous measures show just how much effort went into safeguarding Yellowstone’s storyline, ensuring that surprises stayed intact until the official release.