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By MARK KENNEDY<\/strong><\/p>\n NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Luke Grimes<\/a> thought he\u2019d said goodbye to stoic Kayce Dutton. The universe of \u201cYellowstone\u201d<\/a> had other ideas.<\/p>\n In the hit show\u2019s fifth and final season in 2024, Dutton rode off into the proverbial sunset at peace, building a new life ranching on his own terms with his wife and son.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018This is it,\u2019\u201d says Grimes. \u201cI love the way this ends for him. He kind of got what he always wanted, which is just a simple life.\u201d<\/p>\n Luckily for fans \u2014 somewhat less so for Dutton \u2014 that simple life is upended as Grimes once more slips into the role for the prime-time spinoff \u201cMarshals,\u201d which premieres Sunday on CBS and streams on Paramount+.<\/p>\n In an artful piece of writing, showrunner Spencer Hudnut takes Dutton from a neo-Western family drama to a Western law enforcement procedural, giving him a badge and having him join a band of U.S. Marshals in Montana.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to make it feel organic and we wanted there to be enough of the sort of ethos of \u2018Yellowstone\u2019 in there that the original fans could have something to hold on to getting into the show, but then have it have somewhere to go that felt like its own thing,\u201d says Grimes.<\/p>\n During the pilot, Dutton meets with an old comrade from his days as a Navy SEAL who gradually recruits him into their four-person Marshal team.<\/p>\n \u201cMay look like God\u2019s country but the devil\u2019s running free out here,\u201d Dutton\u2019s friend tells him. \u201cI\u2019m guessing you got your own demons to conquer, and I could sure use another door-kicker.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMarshals\u201d allows the show\u2019s creators to explore the military backstory of Dutton, a combat veteran with Special Forces skills. In the first episode, viewers will see Dutton smartly unlock a cellphone with a dead man\u2019s eyes, a talent that wasn\u2019t exploited on the Taylor Sheridan-led \u201cYellowstone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe barely scratched the surface of that,\u201d says Grimes. \u201cIn a way, it was kind of a blessing because we have all that stuff to explore now without it feeling like we just made some stuff up.\u201d<\/p>\n Grimes says Dutton looks beyond the ranching life to take the job as a U.S. Marshal as a way to come out of his shell, help people and recover from personal tragedy.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly he\u2019s making an effort to do something different here and change his life and change his son\u2019s life at the same time,\u201d says Grimes. \u201cBecause whatever dream that he had is over now, he\u2019s never getting it back.\u201d<\/p>\n The series also stars Logan Marshall-Green, Arielle Kebbel, Ash Santos and Tatanka Means, as well as familiar faces from \u201cYellowstone,\u201d including Gil Birmingham, Moses Brings Plenty and Brecken Merrill as Dutton\u2019s son.<\/p>\n\u2018Demons to conquer\u2019<\/h4>\n
A non-traditional procedural<\/h4>\n