Back in the saddle: Luke Grimes’ Kayce Dutton leads Yellowstone into Marshals territory

Kayce Dutton’s hat is a perfect fit. So perfect, in fact, that it’s not going to fall off even in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight. And, to be clear, Kayce is in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight.

As a temporarily deputized member of the U.S. Marshals, Kayce (Luke Grimes) is currently trying to apprehend the suspect of a recent attack in his home state of Montana. In an otherwise empty hospital bathroom, Kayce shoves the guy’s face into the mirror; the suspect reciprocates with a right hook. Moments later, they’re both on the floor, leaving John Dutton’s youngest son to crawl to his gun just in time to stop the assailant from stabbing him. And yet, as Kayce lies on that bathroom floor, out of breath and once again having just barely escaped death, one thing remains completely and totally stable: the black cowboy hat on his head.

“Luke’s been wearing that hat for years. It’s like an extension of his head,” Marshals showrunner Spencer Hudnut tells Entertainment Weekly. And there’s no doubt it will be tested many more times over the course of Marshals’ 13-episode first season (premiering March 1).

The CBS spinoff picks up about a year after the end of Yellowstone, and blends Kayce’s Montana world with his past experience as a Navy SEAL, with a former brother-in-arms asking him to join his team of deputy U.S. Marshals.

Sitting in his Montana home, Grimes confirms that he’s still wearing his original hat, which was quite literally made for him during a fitting at the home of Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan before the beloved western series ever aired an episode.

“If you watch a real cowboy, they can haul ass on a horse going 30 miles an hour, and that hat never comes off,” Grimes says of his headwear, though he’s quick to point out that he’s not a real cowboy. Even if he has played one for nearly 9 years.

Raw materials

For five seasons on Paramount Network’s Yellowstone, Grimes portrayed tortured cowboy Kayce Dutton, the youngest of four Dutton siblings whose larger-than-life (and death) father, John (Kevin Costner), usually got what he wanted — no matter the cost. When the series began,

Kayce was the only sibling who’d left the family ranch behind, choosing to live on the Broken Rock reservation with his Indigenous wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), and their son, Tate (Brecken Merrill). As much as John and Kayce’s relationship ebbed and flowed, his devotion to protecting his family never did. And when your dad has a lot of enemies, that’s not always as easy as it sounds.

From his very first audition, it was a role that Grimes felt — like Kayce’s hat — was a perfect fit. The audition scene was from the pilot of what would become one of the biggest shows on television. (The series finale amassed 13.1 million viewers.) It was Kayce, sitting around a campfire, eating fresh fish alongside his two brothers and his son.

“I still have that audition on my computer from years ago,” Grimes says. “That’s what got me the job. And then doing that scene on the day was really special. It’s one of the best scenes in all of Yellowstone that I was in.”

And although Kayce would lose one brother by the end of the pilot, followed by his father and his other brother by the end of the series, he somehow made it out with what could be described as a happy ending — giving most of his father’s land back to the Broken Rock reservation and keeping the East Camp for his family’s future. But happily ever after doesn’t exactly make for a great spinoff.

“In that first conversation with Luke, he was like, ‘Kayce’s happy. That’s not very interesting,’” Hudnut, who previously ran CBS’ SEAL Team, recalls. “So we knew that something had to shake him out of that.”

So, although they won’t go into details at this point, it’s safe to assume Kayce is no longer too happy when we find him.

“There’s a reason why Kayce is the only one with the black hat,” Grimes says, recalling that initial fitting. “He’s got a lot going on in his soul. Clearly, he’s got demons, and his arc was trying to heal and find his path. In the original Yellowstone, he did that.”

But now?

“We’re kind of in black hat territory again.”

Blocking

Hudnut was first approached about a potential Yellowstone spinoff before the fifth and final season finished filming. Coming from working on SEAL Team, his approach utilized Kayce’s time in the military. A week before the finale aired, he pitched the idea to Sheridan. Then, he had to get Grimes on board.

“They started bringing it up when we were filming the last few episodes of the original series. There started to be some offers for a spinoff, and I hadn’t gotten one yet, and I was like, ‘I guess that’s it for me,’” Grimes remembers, likely nodding to the other current-day Yellowstone spinoff, The Dutton Ranch, which stars legacy cast members Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser. “And then I got a call and it was like, ‘It’ll be CBS primetime and it’ll be more of a procedural format.’”

Grimes is the first to admit he had to ask a friend what a procedural was.

“My mom loves procedurals,” he says with a laugh. “I wasn’t too familiar with the format. I was like, ‘His story ended so perfectly. I don’t know if we should go back into it.’ I was very reluctant at first. I’d never heard of anything like this before.”

Hudnut likes to say Marshals is a “non-traditional procedural,” and once he was able to share his vision for the series, Grimes found himself thinking about picking up that black hat again.

“I realized we’re not just trying to juice a stone and get a paycheck, there really is a story to tell,” Grimes says. “This guy used to be a SEAL, and we never explored that.”

Other members of the Yellowstone family didn’t need nearly as much convincing.

“I missed filming a lot, so when I got the email that they’re working on a spinoff, I jumped for joy,” says Brecken Merrill, who returns as a moody 17-year-old Tate. “I was all in immediately.”

Kesley Asbille has not yet been confirmed to be part of the show as Monica, and although it’s unclear what role her character will play in the new series, if any, the show puts a real emphasis on Kayce being more of a father to Tate than ever before.

As for where Kayce might find a little guidance in that department, Marshals also managed to rope in a few more familiar faces. Gil Birmingham returns as Broken Rock Chairman Thomas Rainwater. And Rainwater doesn’t go anywhere without his most trusted right-hand man, the unshakeable Mo (Mo Brings Plenty).

“Rainwater provides a real anchor for Kayce,” Birmingham says. “Somebody he can trust, somebody that he loves.”

For Birmingham, returning to the hills of Montana felt like a trip down memory lane — or at least something like it.

“When we started shooting the first episode, we were on the same location from Yellowstone,” he remembers. “Luke and Mo and I were reminiscing: ‘This is so strange, it’s like time travel.’”

As Grimes puts it, “It felt like the way we made Yellowstone, just with a whole new batch of characters.”

Finishing and shaping

In the new series, Kayce finds himself reuniting with his former SEAL Team leader, Pete Calvin, a.k.a. Cal (Logan Marshall-Green), whose new team is comprised of Bronx transplant Andrea (Ash Santos); former Broken Rock reservation cop Miles (Tatanka Means); and Belle (Arielle Kebbel), an ATF agent who seems to have a (secret) local history.

“Part of what we wanna do with this show is really explore the cost and consequences of being someone who runs into the fire,” Hudnut says. “How do you do the most intense job in the world and then come home?”