You’ll have to rip the role of Kayce Dutton away from Luke Grimes.

One of the latest Yellowstone spinoffs focuses in on one of the flagship series’ most beloved characters: Kayce Dutton. He and his wife, Monica (played by Kelsey Asbille), got a feel-good, happily-ever-after ending when Yellowstone concluded. That’s all been unraveled by the CBS procedural drama Marshals.

The show sees Luke Grimes reprise his Yellowstone role, and navigates the complex life of Kayce Dutton as he faces tragedy in his personal life (the loss of his wife, Monica) and finds himself working as a U.S. Marshal. Some fans have taken to social media to complain that Marshals, which is airing on network television, doesn’t feel like the typical Taylor Sheridan show. Others have just been happy to see more of Kayce Dutton on their TV screens.

If you were to ask Luke Grimes, he’s just surprised – and grateful – that he’s getting to play the character again. He told Collider that he never imagined stepping back into the role that he left when Yellowstone ended in 2024. Because it was such a beautiful ending, Grimes thought that his story was undoubtedly closed.

That’s why he was so hesitant when the idea of a Kayce Dutton spinoff was pitched to him. In fact, when someone mentioned that CBS was interested in doing a procedural based around his character, he thought it was a horrible plan:

“I thought it sounded like a really bad idea. I didn’t really, truly know what procedural meant, so I called my friend, and he explained it to me because he’d done one. He said, ‘Dude, that’s going to be a lot of work. It’s a lot more work for you, especially to be the lead of a procedural.’ I was worried about it because it was the unknown.”

Grimes was also worried because Marshals was set to have a new showrunner. With all of the other projects that Taylor Sheridan has going on, he wasn’t going to be able to be as hands-on as he typically is with shows underneath the Yellowstone umbrella. Throw in the fact that the series was trying to both pay homage to Yellowstone and pick up a story where people who didn’t want the flagship show could jump right in, and Grimes didn’t have much faith in the idea at all.

However, once Sheridan gave the series his blessing, that changed everything. And once Grimes got back on the exact soundstage where he shot Yellowstone, everything clicked, and it all made sense:

“We’re back shooting on the same soundstage that we started ‘Yellowstone’ on in 2017… There are a lot of characters, over the years, that I’ve played that it would feel like torture to have to play for eight or nine years. But with Kayce, if there was going to be one, it would be this one. I feel very at home with him, and I feel like I would play this guy as long as they would let me.”

Considering the monster numbers that Marshals has put up for CBS, and that the network has already ordered a Season 2, Luke Grimes just might get his wish.