@glennganges Published March 1, 2026, 3:15 p.m. ET More On: taylor sheridan What Time Is ‘Marshals’ On Tonight? How To Watch Luke Grimes’ ‘Yellowstone’ Spin-Off On CBS And Online ‘The Madison’ Trailer Premiere: Michelle Pfeiffer Leads Her Family On An Emotionally Raw Journey In Taylor Sheridan’s New Paramount+ Drama When Does ‘Marshals’ Premiere On CBS? Everything To Know About Luke Grimes’ ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff ‘Vanderpump Rules’ Star Angelica Jensen Opens Up About Her ‘Landman’ Season 2 Cameo, Says Taylor Sheridan Directs From “A Little Tent Very Far Away” Kayce Dutton is a living part of his family’s Yellowstone legacy. Whether he wants that for himself and his own is a different story. Luke Grimes returns as the youngest Dutton brother on Marshals, created for CBS by former SEAL Team showrunner Spencer Hudnut, and based on characters and themes straight out of Taylor Sheridan’s expanding TV universe. Grimes is joined here by Brecken Merrill as Kayce’s son Tate Dutton, plus a few other familiar faces; Marshals also stars Logan Marshall-Green, Arielle Kebbel, Ash Santos, and Tatanka Means.
Opening Shot: Explosions and gunfire greet us inside a tense flashback, where Kayce Dutton (Grimes) is still a Navy SEAL. But why is there a phone ringing in the dirt? And why is it his wife Monica calling?
The Gist: Because this is only a dream. Marshals doesn’t waste any time getting to where Kayce is, post-Yellowstone: he’s a single father raising a teenager at East Camp, because Monica Long Dutton (Kelsey Asbille) is gone after a brave fight with cancer. In the morning, at their home, Kayce brings in the cattle with Tate (Brecken Merrill). He sees a wolf watching him from the treeline, draws a bead but does not fire. And when his son shuffles out the door for high school with barely a response to “This ranch is our fight,” we know losing Monica has been a blow to both father and son.
What’s next for Kayce? He turned in his livestock agent’s badge, and was supposed to be a rancher with his family, but what he’s mostly got is 300 pair and a whole lot of ghosts. Pete Calvin (Marshall-Green) knows about that – he’s Kayce’s old buddy from the SEAL Teams, now leading a new Montana-based team of US Marshals. Calvin says joining the Marshals Service saved him himself, after a destructive post-Navy life. He also says his team could use another door-kicker with experience. After all, Kayce’s got his own demons to conquer.
Kayce still has close ties with the Black Rock Native American community, his wife’s people. The cancer that took her has plagued the reservation, due to toxic runoff from encroaching federal building projects, and Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and Mo (Mo Brings Plenty) are leading the fight for support. When unknown terror elements attack a Black Rock protest at the river, Kayce joins Calvin’s team on an emergency interim basis. His local knowledge – and sure trigger finger – will come in handy.
It’s a team that includes Belle Skinner (Kebbel) and Andrea Cruz (Santos), plus Miles Kittle (Means), also of the Black Rock people and a former Marine. There’s also a big boss, Harry Gifford (Brett Cullen), who bristles at the Dutton family name being around his operation. The title of this series makes it pretty clear what Kayce will decide. But for now he’s assisting the Marshals and considering next chapters for himself and Tate. Thomas Rainwater has an idea about that. “You’re not a killer, Kayce. You’re a protector.”
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Marshals, where Taylor Sheridan exec produces, is officially the fourth series in his Yellowstone saga. The Dutton Ranch, still upcoming, recently added Ed Harris to the cast, while Sheridan is also the creator-writer for The Madison, a separate sprawl of family drama in the West, which premieres this month on Paramount Plus.
Marshals, though, while retaining key DNA as a sequel/spin-off in the Sheridan-O-Verse, is also very much a CBS procedural-type show. Fans of Fire Country, Sheriff Country, and NCIS: Origins, take note.
Our Take: We always liked Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton on Yellowstone. He was always the most soulful Dutton sibling, extremely capable when it came to finishing the fights that forever followed his family name, but more prone to spirit quest visions and the quiet life than always being the toughest in the county. Grimes carries a lot of that under his hat in Marshals, retaining Kayce’s actions-before-words mentality and suggesting the weight of the Dutton legacy he’s still dragging around. And we like how Marshals is incorporating it, not making this all about the echoes of Yellowstone, even as its new characters reference the family name – and their scandals – like the local legend it has become.
We’re also interested in team-building as it relates to Kayce. He proves an asset early on to Pete Calvin and the rest of his US Marshals crew, but the team itself is also pretty new. Veteran experience of their own, sure, but not around these parts. They are all navigating this wild new Montana space. So, as “case of the week”-type stuff pops up, Kayce’s experience will be key. But it’s sure to merge with what the rest of the team brings, just like his Dutton existence is merging with whatever his next form becomes.
Performance Worth Watching: Mo Brings Plenty was always a treasure on Yellowstone, and Mo is a welcome sight in Marshals. We always liked his connection with Kayce in particular, and will be looking for more of that.
Sex and Skin: Nothing here; Marshals feels pretty network television-presented.
Parting Shot: Kayce visits Monica’s gravesite in its special place at East Camp. “You always told me to fight for the life I want. But I had the life I wanted. It was with you.”
Sleeper Star: Arielle Kebbel makes the most of her few early chances to add a bit of backstory to Belle Skinner in Marshals. We’re interested in where Belle’s personal history might intersect with Kayce’s.
Most Pilot-y Line: Pete Calvin says his Marshals team is staying busy in Montana. “Gangs, cartels, race warriors: it may look like God’s country, but the devil’s running free out here.”
Our Call: Stream It! Luke Grimes is up to the challenge of leading a Yellowstone spin-off as Kayce Dutton, as Marshals inserts his character and all that family lore into an action-procedural, very familiar CBS-type series.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
