Speaking to People, Luke Grimes detailed how it felt to say goodbye (or so he thought) to Kayce Dutton at the end of Yellowstone, and why he agreed to return for Y: Marshals. Like Yellowstone‘s fans, Grimes, the actors, and “the studio and network certainly didn’t want it to be over,” and Luke decided to return because there was “a really good idea” for Kayce’s spinoff that he thinks “will rope the audience in.” Read Grimes’ quotes below:
Nobody wanted it to be over. I don’t think the fans wanted it to be over. A lot of us actors kind of didn’t want it to be over, and the studio and network certainly didn’t want it to be over…
To try to put that show away, it was hard. It was really hard, and I know this is going to sound weird, but it was sort of emotional. It was like losing a family in a way.
“On the last day of shooting [Yellowstone], I thought it was my last day as Kayce. It was over to me. It was seven years of playing a person that I’ll never see again, except for having his hat and jacket in my closet. It wasn’t until probably three or four months after that that everything started aligning for the [spinoff]… Finally came along a really good idea…
If it was just like, ‘well, he’s happy’ — we’re just going to watch him be happy? That’s not very cool. But I’ll say this, the idea that was pitched to me is very, very good and very interesting and it really roped me in and I think it will rope the audience in as well.
Some Familiar Faces Will Still Appear
According to the show’s description, “In Y: Marshals, Kayce has joined an elite team of U.S. marshals. He’ll be seen combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana, where he and his teammates must balance family, duty, and the high psychological cost that comes with serving as the last line of defense in the region’s war on violence.”
While it seems Y: Marshals will contain Yellowstone‘s trademark action and violence, Kayce’s spinoff will still differ from Taylor Sheridan’s original neo-Western.
CBS’ Y: Marshals will be a procedural, which lines up with the network’s traditional genre of hit series, and breaks from the serialized format of Yellowstone.
CBS hasn’t confirmed that Kelsey Asbille and Brecken Merrill will return as Kayce’s wife, Monica, and son, Tate, but Grimes says “familiar faces” will appear in Y: Marshals as well as a slew of new characters. Although Kayce “is back to who he really is and his soul” at the end of Yellowstone, Grimes hints at “a new set of circumstances” that sends the heroic Dutton back to action in Y: Marshals.
Y: Marshals Sounds Like It Is And Isn’t Yellowstone
CBS aired seasons of Yellowstone, albeit edited to network television standards, and Y: Marshals will likely fit that mold without pushing to the extremes like Yellowstone often did. Kayce’s ending in Yellowstone was satisfying, so it will be curious to see what drives him back to action as U.S. marshal, especially after he famously gave up being livestock commissioner in Yellowstone.
It would also make no sense for Monica and Tate to be omitted from Y: Marshals. Kayce’s family has to be the beating heart and center of his spinoff, as it was in Yellowstone.
Another Yellowstone spinoff, The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, is also filming and is expected to stream on Paramount+.