The Yellowstone spinoff that could have been. There’s been a lot of anticipation leading up to the release of Marshals – the Kayce Dutton-focused spinoff that’s set to air on CBS. Now, only a month or so from the release, we know a lot about what the series will explore, and who will be involved as far as the cast is concerned.
Here’s the synopsis of the show’s first season, which is set to be 13-episodes long:
“With the Yellowstone Ranch behind him, Dutton joins an elite unit of U.S. Marshals, 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.”
Sounds exciting, right? The only issue is that kind of undercuts the whole “Kayce Dutton trying to find peace” storyline that was present throughout Yellowstone.
That should have been our first clue that an important cast member wasn’t returning. Why would Kayce go back to his old ways if he was living a peaceful life with his family? Then again, would viewers tune into a show where Kayce (Luke Grimes) and Monica (Kelsey Asbille) were just taking care of their kiddo and paying the bills?
Funny enough, Asbille kind of floated that idea out there following the conclusion of Yellowstone. When the actress spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, she thought it would be interesting to see how Kayce and Monica are doing just as a regular, married couple:
“Oh, (there are) definitely (hurdles). That’s I guess part of marriage, the hurdles. That’s just life! But I think they’ve always been endgame for each other. It’s what they’ve been working so hard towards, building this family and making a home with their son and looking forward. So I hope they get that peace in the end.”
It was around that same time that Luke Grimes said he and Asbille would be at the ready if the Yellowstone creator gave them a call and told them that their story wasn’t over:
“(Kelsey and I) keep saying that if Taylor Sheridan calls and it’s something he wants to do and it’s something he wants to write, we would absolutely say yes.”
And Sheridan eventually did call… but from what we’ve seen out of the latest trailer (and sneak peeks of Season 1 of Marshals), it appears that Kayce and Monica Dutton won’t get their happily ever after. We should have known that was the case when Grimes said this back in June when he was asked about why it felt right to return and continue to tell Kayce Dutton’s story:
“We definitely wanted to make sure to give it a real story and make it interesting and make it believable. If it was just like, ‘Well, he’s happy’ — we’re just going to watch him be happy? That’s not very cool.”
So yeah… safe to assume that Kayce Dutton won’t be happy in Marshals, and he’ll be getting back to his violent ways because of the passing of his wife.
Maybe her passing motivated him to join the Marshals? Some early descriptions of the show do say that Kayce joins the U.S. Marshals after “momentous change” happens in his life, so losing his life partner could, in fact, be that catalyst. I guess we’ll find out how everything shakes out when the first episode of the series on March 1st.
CBS has confirmed that the spinoff sequel will air in the spring, and will fall into the coveted 8 E.S.T time slot. The series premiere of Marshals will go out to all Yellowstone fans on Sunday, March 1 on CBS. New episodes of the show will air in same time slot all the way through May – assuming no interruptions or mid-season breaks – until the season finale.
You can view the trailer for Marshals that all but confirms Monica Dutton has passed away below:
