Marshals might have Taylor Sheridan’s name on it… but he’s not overseeing the show like some might think.
It’s no secret that the Yellowstone creator is one of the most sought after minds in Hollywood. Because it seems as though everything he touches turns to gold (or at least brings in massive ratings), there’s not an entertainment executive out there who doesn’t want a slice of the Taylor Sheridan pie. That obviously gets a lot of his projects green lit, which in turns makes him a very busy person.
So busy, in fact, that Sheridan has to trust others to carry on his vision for certain projects that have his name on it.
One of those projects is the Yellowstone spinoff Marshals, which premiered on CBS earlier this year. Though it continues the story of Kayce Dutton, fans of the flagship series that Luke Grimes’ character originally starred in might notice that it feels a bit different than Yellowstone.
Why? Because Taylor Sheridan can’t hunker down on just one show anymore. He simply doesn’t have the time. Think of all the other series he’s got going right now… Landman, Special Ops: Lioness, The Madison, Dutton Ranch, Mayor of Kingstown. Sheridan is a prolific writer, but he can’t be in more than one place at once. As the universe of Taylor Sheridan shows has grown, he’s had no other choice but to be less and less involved in each one.
The Kayce Dutton spinoff is actually the first Yellowstone show that Sheridan hasn’t written himself. Spencer Hudnut was approached to create the spinoff by CBS, and was then entrusted to continue the story that included established Yellowstone character by Sheridan and David Glasser (Sheridan’s right-hand producing man). All three are credited as creators of the show.
I’m sure Taylor Sheridan would be 100% involved in each and every one of his shows if he could… but it’s a logistical problem more than anything else. There’s countless shows on television right now that Sheridan is at least a producer on… and there’s only one Taylor Sheridan. So that’s why the Yellowstone creator found someone he could trust in Hudnut (who has previously worked on the popular CBS show Seal Team), helped him get it off the ground, and then left Hudnut to handle things on his own… that maybe why many Yellowstone fans think it sucks.
And Hudnut is legitimately leading the show by himself. Marshals star Arielle Kebbel, who plays U.S. Marshall Belle Skinner in the show, recently spoke to People about the spinoff, and how the network procedural is more so a Yellowstone hybrid than it is a continuation of the story (like how Dutton Ranch will probably feel):
“For our show, it’s a bit of a different story because our show is truly a hybrid of the Yellowstone universe, with Taylor’s blessing and Taylor executive producing and 101 Studios behind us. Also, Spencer Hudnut is our show creator.
So, just in terms of the character development and story arcs, it’s really a merger of the world that Taylor (created) with this new chapter that Spencer’s created.”
Kebbel is referring to Brecken Merrill, Gil Birmingham, Mo Brings Plenty and obviously Kayce Dutton. They definitely help bring a familiarity to what some fans have been quick to call a cookie-cutter crime procedural.
Those returning characters know a thing or two about how a Taylor Sheridan show works… and it sounds like it’s a good thing that they are there, because the actress behind Belle Skinner also told People that the Yellowstone creator isn’t around the set of Marshals.
And it’s not like he only drops in from time to time. From how Kebbel puts it, he’s never there, and she’s never actually met him:
“It’s funny. I was talking with some of the cast of his other shows, and at least in my experience, Taylor’s like the man behind the curtain. No one ever sees him… The man is busy. So I actually have not met him.”
That seems hard to believe.
But on the other hand, Marshals isn’t a Taylor Sheridan show. It’s just a series that has his blessing. There are parts of it that feel more Yellowstone-ish than others, but at the end of the day, it’s Spencer Hudnut’s show. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that the actors and actresses of Marshals have to get comfortable knowing Sheridan isn’t walking through that door.
New episodes of the show will air on CBS at 8 E.S.T time all the way through May.
