Taylor Sheridan Officially Continues The Duttons' Yellowstone Story This Week

While Taylor Sheridan’s TV empire extends far beyond just the Yellowstone universe, the season 2 return of CBS’s procedural hit means that the writer/director’s most famous creation is on its way back to the small screen this week. Although mid-2010s big-screen hits like Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River built Taylor Sheridan’s career as a screenwriter, it was a drama-filled family saga that turned the writer/director into a TV super producer.

Much like Shonda Rhimes parlayed her earlier career successes like Grey’s Anatomy, How To Get Away With Murder, and Scandal to launch Netflix’s Bridgerton, Sheridan’s soapy Neo-Western Yellowstone turned him into one of the biggest names of the streaming era. Not only did Yellowstone’s success spawn five seasons of the original series, the prequels 1883 and 1923, and two sequel shows after its original series finale, but Sheridan also went on to produce the spy thriller Lioness, the prison drama Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King and its upcoming spinoff Frisco King, and The Madison.

Although Dutton Ranch is arguably a perfect dupe for Yellowstone, thanks to its melodramatic storytelling and amoral main characters, the CBS procedural Marshals is the original show’s stronger follow-up. Following Luke Grimes’ conflicted Kayce Dutton as he becomes a US Marshal, Marshals season 1 balanced procedural case of the week storylines with a serialized character study of Kayce after the deaths of his father John and his older brother, Jamie. Now, season 2 of Marshals is set to premiere on October 4, bringing back the superior Yellowstone sequel for a sophomore outing.

Marshals Season 2 Premieres On October 4

Marshals season 1 began in March 2026, bringing the Yellowstone franchise back to network TV for a successful 13-week run. The Fall premiere of Marshals season 2 implies that the second outing of the series will have more episodes, which is great news for anyone who felt that season 1 didn’t have enough screen time to delve deep into the subplots of Kayce’s coworkers.

While Marshals was marketed as a procedural series, which would be a major departure for the Yellowstone franchise, season 1 was mostly focused on Kayce’s story. This fit the soapy storytelling style of the original Yellowstone, which borrowed its melodramatic modern Western stylings from ‘80s camp classics like Dynasty and Dallas. Although Dutton Ranch continues this tradition, Marshals season 2’s procedural framework means the show has a chance to do something new with the series.

The show can move on from solely centering Kayce’s story, instead widening its scope to focus more on his team of colleagues. From the 9-1-1 franchise to the CSI shows to the Law & Order universe, network TV procedurals typically live and die based on the chemistry between their teams. While season 1 of the spinoff didn’t focus as much on Kayce’s coworkers as it could have, Marshals season 2’s return could see the show change this approach.

Why Marshals Is A Better Yellowstone Sequel Than Dutton Ranch

This new format is, after all, one of two major changes that make Marshals a stronger Yellowstone follow-up than Dutton Ranch. The procedural style means that Marshals should, ideally, feel as much like an NCIS spinoff or Tracker as it does like Yellowstone. Changing the show into a network procedural means that Marshals has a fresh new style, and doesn’t merely feel like a continuation of Yellowstone.

In contrast, Dutton Ranch is so clearly indebted to Yellowstone that it was a surprise to see Yellowstone’s Jimmy return in Marshals season 2 instead of Beth and Rip’s spinoff. After all, not only is Dutton Ranch filled with nods to Yellowstone, but the show focuses on Beth and Rip using underhanded, often illegal tactics to hold onto a titular ranch as various buyers try to trick them into selling their land.

That is essentially the exact same story that Yellowstone told, albeit with John Dutton holding onto the ranch instead of his daughter. The two shows are even both named after their respective settings, and Rip already did John’s criminal dirty work in Yellowstone before he graduated to committing crimes for love interest, John’s daughter Beth, in the sequel series. As a result, Dutton Ranch doesn’t feel like a major meaningful creative or narrative departure from the original show.

In contrast, even before Marshals season 2, the first outing of the CBS procedural has done plenty to differentiate Kayce from his father. There is Kayce’s aversion to using extrajudicial violence and the guilt he feels about killing, which he fears will make him more like his pitiful, abusive father. There is also season 2’s hints at Kayce’s branding backstory, a storyline that exposes what a monster John was as Kayce actively attempts to distance himself from his father’s problematic legacy.

What To Expect From Marshals Season 2

Since the two shows began, Marshals has made it clear that Kayce wants to be less like his father was in Yellowstone, while Dutton Ranch has made it equally obvious that Beth is desperate to act more like her father. As such, Marshals is the stronger sequel since the show wants to do something genuinely different to the franchise, while Dutton Ranch is content to play the familiar proverbial hits by revisiting the same story beats a few years later.

Not all of Sheridan’s small screen experiments have succeeded, as anyone who has seen the divisive prison drama Mayor of Kingstown can attest. That said, Marshals still deserves props for trying to do something new with the Yellowstone formula when its sister series is simply sequel-izing the original hit show. As Marshals season 2 arrives, viewers should expect more tortured introspection from Kayce as he navigates fatherhood and doing right by his son.

The pitiless world of Marshals often throws Kayce into situations where bullets and bloodshed are the only apparent solutions to his problems, so he has understandably come to fear that he will soon be a mere carbon copy of his late father. However, viewers can expect Yellowstone’s superior sequel show to instead teach Kayce how to rely on his colleagues for support in Marshals season 2 when the CBS series returns.