‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff ‘Y: Marshals’ Will Reportedly Focus On Kayce Dutton Being A Father & Makes No Mention Of Monica

Luke Grimes’ Kayce Dutton character has a lot of titles… and evidently, the most important one is being a father.

Fans have been eagerly awaiting the premiere of Y: Marshals ever since the Yellowstone spinoff focusing in on Kayce Dutton was announced. We’ve gotten little glimpses here and there, but an official teaser trailer that was released back in November finally gave viewers a longer look at what to expect out of Y: Marshals.

CBS recently announced their 2025-2026 midseason lineup, and series that’s probably the most anticipated is Y: Marshals, which will feature 13 episodes in its first season. Luke Grimes is reprising his role as Kayce Dutton in the show, and fans are excited to see how the youngest of the Dutton siblings once again utilizes his prior military experience as a Navy SEAL.

Based on the show’s proposed log line, it appears the series will explore his trained skillset a bit more:

“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.”

If that doesn’t cause Yellowstone fans to lean in, I don’t know what will.

Admittedly, the premise of the show is a little surprising, considering much of Kayce’s storyline in Yellowstone was trying to get out from underneath all of the violence. But showrunner Spencer Hudnut insists that the story will all make sense, and explained how everything will work out when he spoke with Entertainment Weekly:

“He is a cowboy, but he is also a Navy Seal, so he has this incredible toolkit of skills to put to the test. He’s a guy who excels running into the fire. As we saw all through ‘Yellowstone,’ he is really the essence of being a protector, so it felt very natural for him to end up in a position like this where he’s putting others first.

Protecting the ranch and all he got up to in ‘Yellowstone’ kept him very busy. This downtime that he’s had between the end of that show and the start of ours has forced him to confront some of his demons and really focus on being a father. He’s a changed man.”

Some downtime for Kayce Dutton, eh?

It’ll certainly be intriguing to see how Luke Grimes’ beloved cowboy character handled the downtime, and fans will also be eager to see if Dutton’s wife, Monica, will return to the show. Yeah… that’s a real concern. If you watch the teaser trailer (I’ve linked it below), she’s nowhere to be found.

And now, considering these quotes from the Y: Marshals showrunner, could Kayce be focusing on being a dad more because… he’s doing it by himself now? That’s just reckless speculation at this point, but check out this other tidbit that Spencer Hudnut shared. There’s even one point where he says Kayce used to leave the “parenting to his wife,” which comes off a bit weird:

“Kayce having this opportunity to spend more time at home and be more focused on continuing to evolve as a father is definitely one of the big storylines. I think Kayce primarily always saw himself as a provider and a protector to his son, but maybe left the parenting to his wife.

But as he’s had a little more time on the home front, one of the things we get to see is the bond between Kayce and his son and also just seeing Kayce beginning to see a lot more of himself in his son as well. Kayce finds himself echoing his own father in some ways as a parent. Through Tate, Kayce gets to understand his father better, even though he’s obviously passed away.” 

No mention of Monica whatsoever?

I was thinking that it would be impossible to leave Kelsey Asbille’s Monica out of the show, but now hearing that from the showrunner, and nothing connecting her to the series as of right now… I’m starting to believe there’s a real possibility that Kayce Dutton is focusing on being a father because he’s a single parent.

How does that happen? I’m not sure, but it’s weird that Y: Marshals hasn’t shown Monica at all, and the actress that plays her isn’t listed as a cast member on the show that’s a couple of months from hitting television screens.

Guess we’ll find out how everything shakes out when the first episode of the series in March of next year. 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 Y: 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.

Here’s the trailer that you can watch over and over again until then:

Y: Marshals Official Teaser Trailer

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