Yellowstone Star's Return In Taylor Sheridan Spinoff Gets Cautious Update From Luke Grimes

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Marshals season 2, episode 1, "All Hat No Cattle."

The return of a pivotal character gets a candid response from Marshals star Luke Grimes.

Marshals season 2 has finally premiered on CBS, and it has started off by essentially wiping the slate clean with a tragic death. Dolly (Ellyn Jameson) is killed in a car accident after Dolly's father, the villainous Tom Weaver (Chris Mulkey), attempts to get away following a botched kidnapping of Kayce's young son, Tate (Brecken Merrill). Tom begs for Kayce to kill him, but he's told that his punishment is having to live with his daughter's death.

This gives the premiere a major reset since Dolly was positioned as a potential love interest for Grimes' Kayce Dutton. Still, in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Grimes answers candidly about whether audiences will get to see Monica Long Dutton in flashbacks or dream sequences. The actor and Marshals executive producer is somewhat doubtful about the possibility, though he doesn't rule it out completely:

I would love it, personally. Her and I haven’t really spoken about it. I don’t know if she would be open to it. Those things are so personal and strange. She feels sort of done with that chapter in her life. But I would certainly love to have her around again, I think it’d be really fun. But I don’t know if it’s in the plan or not.

Grimes is in a better position than most Marshals cast members to know whether Kelsey Asbille will reprise her role as Monica, Kayce's wife, who died of cancer before the spinoff began. He is the lead of the CBS show, in addition to being an EP. He also expresses in the same interview that he misses working with Asbille and that her absence was partly the reason that he felt uncertain about returning to play Kayce after the end of Yellowstone.

It's been reported that Monica's death was at least partly motivated by legal reasons to differentiate Marshals from being a direct Yellowstone continuation. But regardless of what may have driven the shocking change, whether purely storyline-related or not, it has meant that Kayce is now a single father to Tate.

At the start of Marshals season 2, Tate is all too quick to mention that he'll be turning 18 soon enough. That may well be a source of conflict between father and son. But if Tate is looking for more independence, potentially even moving away from his dad and the inherent dangers he's faced so far, it may mean that Kayce will have to gradually accept someone new in his life.

That will be a tricky thing for audiences to accept, especially because the relationship between Monica and Kayce was so popular. But at least for right now, it doesn't look like Marshals is totally ready to make that big leap.

Marshals season 2 airs Sundays at 8 PM ET on CBS.

Release Date 2026 - 2026-00-00

Showrunner Spencer Hudnut

Directors Christopher Chulack, Greg Yaitanes

Writers Spencer Hudnut, Tom Mularz, Dana Greenblatt