Why Kayce Dutton Got a ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff — and Why Luke Grimes Said Yes

Saying goodbye to Yellowstone was harder than Luke Grimes expected, but he felt his Dutton chapters were over. And then, just a few months after Yellowstone‘s final season wrapped filming, the idea for the Kayce Dutton spinoff, Y: Marshals, came along. Grimes explains his reasons for saying yes to the CBS procedural in a new interview.

Following the Yellowstone series finale in December, there are two spinoffs in the works, each centering the surviving Dutton siblings. There’s the Beth and Rip spinoff starring Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, a series that will likely be airing on Paramount Network and/or Paramount+. The second spinoff is about Grimes’ Kayce Dutton, but it’s shockingly going to be a procedural on CBS. While CBS is under the Paramount umbrella, and while CBS aired seasons of Yellowstone in the past, it’s an unexpected development to see this franchise move over to broadcast TV.

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. A cast list has yet to be announced, but it’s presumed that Kelsey Asbille and Brecken Merrill will reprise their roles as Monica and Tate Dutton, Kayce’s wife and son, in the show set to debut in spring 2026 in a Sunday primetime slot.

“On the last day of shooting, I thought it was my last day as Kayce. It was over to me,” Grimes told People. “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].”

Grimes admitted that closing the door on Yellowstone was “a lot bigger of a life moment than I thought it would be. 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.”

“Nobody wanted it to be over,” Grimes said. “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.” But ultimately, the way Yellowstone wrapped up did make Kayce’s story feel complete. He “sort of gets what he has been looking for, his dream life” in the series finale after selling the Dutton family ranch to Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and securing a patch of that land for a home for his family, Grimes explained. Kayce was “back to who he really is and his soul” at the end. And then, “Finally came along a really good idea” to revive Kayce’s tale.

“We definitely wanted to make sure to give it a real story and make it interesting and make it believable,” Grimes shared, noting that “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.”

“It will be weird” to return to the world after having already said his goodbyes, the 41-year-old actor admitted. But he also revealed that “there’s going to be some familiar faces” in Y: Marshals. “There’s going to be a lot of new faces too, so we’ll see how that all feels.”

The star said it’s a “really bizarre transition” to bid farewell to Yellowstone, but even the excitement of returning to that world isn’t enough to get rid of the new weird feeling that the spinoff brings for him. “To go back into it in a new set of circumstances is going to be kind of transition” in and of itself, Grimes said.

Other than Monica and Tate, who are some familiar Yellowstone faces you’re hoping to see in the Y: Marshals spinoff? Let us know in the comments below.

Y: Marshals, Series Premiere, Spring 2026, CBS