Yellowstone Salvaged Season 5’s Most Controversial Storyline By Setting Up Kayce’s Spinoff

Kayce settles at East Camp with his son, Tate (Brecken Merrill), and wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), in Yellowstone’s finale, while his sister moves to a ranch in Dillon. Just before Yellowstone‘s finale, news broke that Beth and Rip (Cole Hauser) would star in a spinoff, with Reilly and Hauser reprising Beth Dutton and her husband, Rip Wheeler. Ahead of 1923 season 2’s finale, an announcement came that Kayce would also get his own show, and Yellowstone season 5 had helped to set the tone for the youngest Dutton son’s offshoot.

John Dutton’s Death Set Up Kayce Dutton’s Yellowstone Spinoff

Kayce Dutton Expertly Investigated John Dutton’s Death

In Yellowstone season 5, Kayce investigates John’s death. The governor’s fate is ruled a suicide, but Kayce leads the charge to have it investigated further. Dutton calls a fellow SEAL, eventually obtaining Grant Horton’s (Matt Gerald) contact information. Then he coerces the medical examiner to perform another autopsy on John, giving her clear evidence that John’s death could have been murder. We see Kayce’s keen investigative skills throughout the process. As such, John’s death provided a proper runway for Kayce’s spinoff.

Why John Dutton’s Death Was So Controversial In Yellowstone Season 5

Kevin Costner’s Exit Tarnished Yellowstone Season 5

Kelly Reilly as Beth and Kevin Costner as John Dutton standing by a tree in Yellowstone

Yellowstone season 5, part 2, immediately and ruthlessly answered the question of John Dutton’s fate. John’s on-screen murder was controversial because longtime Yellowstone audiences didn’t want to see Costner written out, and Dutton’s death was especially violent. Costner didn’t return to Yellowstone after scheduling conflicts and other disputes led to the actor being dropped from the show, according to Costner, when speaking out about his Yellowstone exit.

Everything We Know About Kayce Dutton’s Yellowstone Spinoff

Kayce Dutton’s Y: Marshals Spinoff Returns Him To Duty

Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) grimacing while wearing a cowboy hat in Yellowstone

We know key details about Kayce Dutton’s Yellowstone spinoff. The official logline says that Kayce will be back on an elite team: “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.”

Kayce’s offshoot will make history as the first Yellowstone variant to air on network TV. Kayce’s show will also have more procedural aspects, departing from the serialized narratives of Yellowstone and its two prequels, 1883 and 1923. The investigative and law enforcement aspects will lend themselves to Y: Marshal’s procedural format, and the show will likely feel quite different. Luke Grimes’ spinoff is already in production, with filming set to begin in Utah this fall, where the first few seasons of Yellowstone were shot.

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