As horses cantered around a corral and guests in cowboy hats and boots stomped across the red carpet, Hollywood was briefly transformed into the plains of Wyoming on Tuesday to celebrate the premiere of Marshals, the latest show from Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone universe.
Cast members Luke Grimes, Riley Green, Arielle Kebbel and Gil Birmingham were all on hand at the Autry Museum of the American West to support their show, which is a spinoff of Yellowstone and sees Grimes reprise his role as Kayce Dutton. In the first episode, Dutton is a rancher persuaded by Logan Marshall Green, his friend and fellow former Navy Seal, to become a U.S. Marshal after he sold the Yellowstone ranch in the original show’s series finale.
On the carpet, Grimes admitted he was initially reluctant to return to playing a Dutton, saying, “I didn’t think I wanted to come back to it, because I felt like Kayce’s story ended so perfectly in the first show. And I was like, well, what are we gonna do now? He’s got his dream life. Everything he’s been fighting for, he’s gotten. He literally rode off into the sunset. And what sort of breaks that world open for him is that that dream life became no longer possible.”
The show’s trailer hints at a major tragedy in Kayce’s life, showing him visiting a grave and seemingly without his wife, Monica (played by Kelsey Asbille). The star continued, “That just opened up an opportunity for him to get really, really out of his comfort zone and open himself to a new world, and to new people, and to a new job, new responsibilities. And using an old skill set that we never really got to see him use.”
One thing that sets Marshals apart from other Sheridan shows is that the prolific producer is not acting as the lead writer (but still serves as an exec producer) and has turned the reins over to showrunner Spencer Hudnut, who told The Hollywood Reporter what it was like to create an original show in someone else’s universe.
“I’m effectively sort of a Taylor Sheridan cover band. It’s a little intimidating. I mean, he is the best writer of my generation in the last 20 years; Yellowstone is the biggest show to come out in 20 years,” Hudnut explained. “So, yeah, when you stop and think about it, it’s very intimidating, but fortunately for me, he made himself available to me. I had a lot of resources to help me try to launch this show. I think once I stopped trying to do a Taylor impression, it really kind of freed me up because there’s only one Taylor Sheridan.”
Ash Santos stars as Andrea Cruz, an experienced Marshal on Grimes’ team. She shared just how intense it was to shoot the series, recalling, “I had to learn so much fight choreography and all these things that I had to do, and I got to do almost all of my own stunts and I was so proud of myself. There was one day in particular, it was so stunt-heavy. That day ended and I’m sweaty and bruised, and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is exactly why I became an actress.’ I’ve never done a role that was this action-packed.”
Mo Brings Plenty, another actor who carries his role over from the original Yellowstone, offered up his thoughts on what makes Sheridan’s shows special. “Taylor has so much openness and he supports cultural diversity. And that’s what makes it different, you know? And it’s always about the authenticity of everything,” he emphasized. “I mean, when you look at us, we as American Indian people are a group of people that are not celebrated in our own homeland. And so Taylor highlights that and he brings it to the forefront, and he gives us the opportunity to occupy the space.”
Following the screening of the pilot episode, guests enjoyed an afterparty in the museum’s courtyard, featuring custom-made cowboy hats, embroidered bandannas and a performance from country star Green and a live band. Marshals premieres Sunday on CBS.
