Kayce Dutton’s Yellowstone spinoff guarantees a core aspect of the original will continue in Luke Grimes’ offshoot. Taylor Sheridan’s flagship neo-Western drama ended in December 2024 with the events of Yellowstone season 5. The outing saw the death of Kayce’s father, John Dutton III (Kevin Costner), who was killed over his actions to halt the airport and development complex that Market Equities intended to build on the governor’s ranch in the Paradise Valley. Despite Yellowstone’s ending, Kayce’s story will continue in a spinoff.

By selling the Dutton Ranch at the end of Yellowstone season 5, Kayce preserved his father’s dream of keeping their family’s heirloom whole. The property had been in the Dutton family tree for over a century, but Kayce sold it to Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and the Broken Rock Tribe to protect it. With the difficult decision, Kayce honored his ancestors’ wish to keep the Yellowstone Ranch intact, despite passing on its stewardship. In Dutton’s spinoff, a procedural on CBS, Kayce will maintain another key aspect of the family legacy.

Kayce’s Spinoff Guarantees His New Show Will Retain Yellowstone’s Violence
Kayce Will Be Back On The Firing Line

Contrasting his liberating decision to quit the Livestock Commission in Yellowstone’s season 5 finale, Kayce will return to the line of fire. CBS’ description confirmed Kayce’s Yellowstone spinoff, called Y: Marshals, will have a law enforcement focus: “With the Yellowstone Ranch behind him, Dutton joins an elite unit of U.S. Marshals, combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana, where he and his teammates must balance family, duty and the high psychological cost that comes with serving as the last line of defense in the region’s war on violence.”

The logline verifies that, despite Kayce leaving the office of Livestock Commissioner, Dutton will continue to combine his experience as a Navy SEAL and a rancher to seek justice against violence surrounding cattle and land in Montana. The description of Y: Marshals fits the news that Kayce Dutton’s new Yellowstone spinoff will be a first for the franchise, as a procedural for CBS. Notwithstanding allegedly wanting to put danger behind him, brutality will undoubtedly surround Kayce in the spinoff, with the note that “psychological cost” comes with his role in “the region’s war on violence.”

Kayce Is The Dutton Who Hated The Violence In Yellowstone The Most
But Kayce Also Feels A Duty To Protect People

While Kayce being back on an elite team makes sense, the development also causes some pause, since Kayce Dutton hated violence on the Yellowstone Ranch more than anyone. When John Dutton finally convinced Kayce to take over the ranch’s operations for a brief time, Kayce Dutton was determined to run the ranch differently than his father and the ranch’s foreman, Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), who resorted to violent tendencies to keep the business in check. When tasked with the same obstacles as his predecessors, Kayce found peaceful solutions, such as saving Walker (Ryan Bingham) from the Train Station.

When tasked with the same obstacles as his predecessors, Kayce found peaceful solutions.

In the end, Kayce’s shift away from violence is what saves him and his sister, Beth (Kelly Reilly), from the hostility that comes with protecting the family’s land. By selling the Yellowstone Ranch to the Broken Rock Tribe, Kayce Dutton fulfilled Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prophecy spelled out in 1883, relinquishing the land to the Native Americans like his ancestor, James Dutton (Tim McGraw), promised. With the decision, Kayce opted to free himself from the task of protecting the ranch, but he would be right back in the thick of danger in his new career.

Yellowstone established that Kayce would be thrust into threatening situations not of his choosing, regardless of his allegiance. Perhaps his Y: Marshals work will be better for Kayce since he presumably opts into the role and can protect all of Montana with a badge to support his cause, ideally bringing his keen morality to the role. Regardless, it sounds like Kayce’s job will continue to test his connection to Monica (Kelsey Asbille), like it did in Yellowstone. The show’s description notes “he and his teammates must balance family” with the high-stakes work that will comprise the meat of Kayce’s new show.