Luke Grimes steps back into Kayce Dutton’s World, Where danger is deliberate and the stakes are higher than ever
For years, Luke Grimes inhabited Kayce Dutton in the television phenomenon Yellowstone, the youngest son of ranch patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) — a character defined by quiet loyalty, moral conflict, and an uneasy proximity to violence. Now, in Marshals, a new Yellowstone spin-off centered on Kayce, Grimes returns to the role as the character steps into a new chapter of his life. When the original series ended, he assumed his time with the character was over.
“Man, it was unexpected,” he tells SWAGGER, reflecting on the call to return for Marshals. “I didn’t think there would be any more for a while, and then suddenly, there it was — a chance to step back into Kayce’s world.”
For Grimes, the surprise wasn’t just about revisiting the character; it was returning to a world that had become part of him. “When I thought Yellowstone was over, I really, really missed him,” he says.
That world inevitably looks different in Marshals. The series introduces new characters and a new environment around Kayce, shifting the dynamic audiences grew familiar with during Yellowstone. While Grimes admits he misses many of the people he worked alongside in the original series, he says the transition has also brought its own sense of discovery.
“I really do miss a lot of the Yellowstone cast that aren’t in this new show,” he says. “But the cast that sort of replaces them and all the new people you meet in Marshals are so wonderful, and that’s become the new normal.”
Even with a new setting and new characters, one thing remains consistent: danger tends to find Kayce Dutton. In the premiere episode of Marshals, a character observes that violence seems to follow the Dutton family wherever they go — a sentiment longtime viewers of Yellowstone will recognize immediately.
Grimes laughs at how direct the line feels. “It’s pretty on the nose,” he says, recalling a moment from the original series that captured the same idea. “There’s a line in the very beginning of Yellowstone where Rip Wheeler (played by Cole Hauser) says, ‘You could find trouble in a church.’ Trouble just seems to follow Kayce around.”
In many ways, that dynamic defined Kayce throughout the original show. He rarely sought conflict, yet it seemed to arrive at his doorstep regardless. Grimes points to the kinds of unexpected moments that became part of the character’s story. “From having a meth house blow up when he’s driving by, it’s just like always in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he says with a smile.
In Marshals, that pattern shifts — instead of stumbling into chaos, Kayce moves toward it deliberately. “I think now he’s actually running into the fire,” Grimes explains. “In this new show, he’s confronting danger on purpose, choosing to step in and help.”
That shift also places Kayce in one of the most emotionally demanding chapters of his story so far. After years of conflict within the Dutton family and the personal losses Kayce has endured, the new series finds him confronting that emotional weight while stepping into a new role protecting others. Without revealing specific plot details, Grimes hints that the new series forces the character to confront profound loss and the weight of decisions that follow. Portraying that arc required navigating a deeper emotional terrain than he had previously explored in the role.
“It was a tough thing to play,” he says. “It’s honestly the hardest thing I could imagine Kayce going through.”
Rather than focusing solely on external conflict, the season asks a more internal question: how someone continues forward when everything around them feels uncertain.
“It’s not only that, but how does he dig himself out of that?” Grimes says. “And how does he not just fall completely into despair?”
For him, the answer begins to emerge in the final moments of the pilot. “I think the very last scene in the pilot episode really addressed it in a beautiful way,” he adds.
Off-screen, Grimes has been navigating the joys of fatherhood since welcoming his child in 2024. On screen, Kayce’s son Tate (Brecken Merrill) is now a teenager, but the contrast of Grimes’ own little one continues to offer him a fresh perspective on the character he’s portrayed since Yellowstone began in 2018.
“My kid is 18 months old and Brecken, who plays Tate, is 18 years old,” he says with a smile. “I’ve been learning a lot about fatherhood. There’s probably a lot I might have played differently had I already had a kid. All I could do was guess. I didn’t know what that experience was like.”
“Doing it in real life is the most wonderful, profound thing I’ve ever done,” he adds. “And it makes me want to change in ways that I didn’t know that I needed to.”
Now that he does, the experience has been transformative. “Doing it in real life is the most wonderful, profound thing I’ve ever done,” he says. “And it makes me want to change in ways that I didn’t know that I needed to.”
Outside of acting, Grimes has also cultivated a budding career in music — something fans occasionally wonder if they might see reflected in Kayce’s story. While the character won’t suddenly appear on screen with a guitar, there is a subtle crossover between the two worlds.
“I did have a song in the pilot episode,” he reveals. “So you might hear my music from time to time.” Still, Grimes is quick to draw a line between the musician and the character audiences know. “I think that would be very bizarre for people to see Kayce pick up a guitar,” he says with a smile.
For audiences who followed Kayce’s journey through Yellowstone, Marshals offers a rare continuation — a chance to see the character step into a new chapter while carrying the same quiet sense of duty that has always defined him.
Episode one and two of Marshals are now streaming on Paramount+.