When Yellowstone returns to Paramount Network later in the fall, Kevin Costner’s John Dutton will apparently be laying it all on the line, with the first look at Season 5 promising that “all will be revealed.” Well, we didn’t even have to wait until the two-hour premiere arrived for a pretty surprising reveal to show itself. The neo-western drama’s new season will welcome back former star Q’orianka Kilcher, meaning fans can look forward to seeing more from her tribal lawyer Angela Blue Thunder, though the casting news comes at a strange time for the actress, given her recent legal issues.
Angela Blue Thunder’s Return For Yellowstone Season 5
To shine a light on the news that’s most exciting for Yellowstone fans, Angela Blue Thunder will get another chance to make her mark in the world of the Duttons and the Broken Rock Reservation. While her return was reported by Deadline, though no further details surrounded it, so it’s unclear when we can expect to see her again. Angela was brought into the fold in Season 3 by Thomas Rainwater in part to deflect Market Equities’ land-grabbing intrusions via Roarke. Though it was clear she wasn’t just a robotic pawn, since Angela didn’t exactly see eye to eye with Rainwater on all fronts.
That said, the character’s impact in Season 3 wasn’t quite as noteworthy as one might have expected when Q’orianka Kilcher was first cast ahead of Season 2’s conclusion. While there was definite fire in the air whenever she shared the screen with Kelly Reilly’s Beth Dutton and Karen Pittman’s Willa Hayes, it didn’t culminate into anything bonkers, though she had enough of an impact that some fans thought she might have played a part in Beth and the rest being attacked. That ended up not being the case, of course, and she was gone entirely throughout the fourth season.
But now the potential for Angela Blue Thunder to shake things up on and around the Yellowstone ranch is renewed, and I suspect Beth and Rainwater will be requesting her legal talents in thwarting the warpath of Market Equities’ Caroline Warner. Jacki Weaver’s head honcho voiced her intentions to become the Dutton family’s nightmare-inducing albatross after Beth used Summer to sabotage construction efforts with a protest, and I don’t imagine she’ll back down easily or quickly.
Q’orianka Kilcher's Insurance Fraud Charges
Q’orianka Kilcher's casting news comes less than a week ahead of her planned court hearing set for Setember 7 in Los Angeles. In July, it was reported that the actress was charged with two felony counts of workers' compensation insurance fraud by the California Department of Insurance. Kilcher was reported to have pled not guilty at her arraingment in May.
Kilcher is alleged to have injured her neck and right shoulder while filming the 2019 Paramount Players film Dora and the Lost City of Gold. It's claimed she told doctors that the injuries left her unable to work, which allowed her to collect disability benefits during the span between mid-October 2019 and early September 2021. But it was during that time when Kilcher initially filmed her scenes for Yellowstone Season 3.
According to People, those close to Q’orianka Kilcher say she was completely surprised by the charges when she was contacted about them. The source spoke about the actress' previously active and athletic lifestyle being forever hampered by the injuries she suffered, and said she looks forward to getting "the truth" out there.
As a result of a car accident she was involved in on the set of Dora, she is now 10% disabled for the rest of her life. The onset injury was a long road to recovery going through intense physical and mental suffering. . . . She had to turn down multiple roles over the last couple years during her recovery due to her injury on the Dora movie. This is an incredibly stressful time for her but she hopes that this case can in some way shed light on the difficulty that actors, especially minority women, across the industry experience when injured on set, since at the end of the day, their bodies are their source of work.
As stated above, it's unclear when Yellowstone fans will first see Angela Blue Thunder again, but here's hoping the actress' situation behind the scenes gets handled accordingly.
Yellowstone Season 5 is set to debut on Paramount Network on Sunday, November 13, at 8:00 p.m. ET, which is the same day that fans can first watch Taylor Sheridan’s newest project for Paramount+ subscribers, the drama Tulsa King, which marks the rare TV turn for Sylvester Stallone. Head to our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what else is hitting the small screen in the coming months.
