What Do U.S Marshals Do? Kayce’s Yellowstone Spinoff Job Explained

Yellowstone‘s spinoff introduced Kayce Dutton in a new line of work — but what is the job of a U.S Marshal?

When viewers were introduced to Kayce (Luke Grimes) on Yellowstone, the member of the Dutton family worked as a livestock agent and commissioner for the Montana Livestock Association, which allowed him to protect cattle and enforce ranching laws. He also had a background as a former U.S. Navy SEAL.

Kayce’s former career came in handy when Marshals, which premiered in March 2026, followed his decision to become a marshal. The CBS show follows Kayce as he leaves “ranching life behind to join an elite unit” of the U.S. Marshals while “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.”

So far, Kayce has helped apprehend threats to society — but what exactly is part of his job description as a U.S Marshal? The role involves “apprehending federal fugitives, protecting federal judges, transporting federal prisoners, operating the Witness Security Program and managing seized assets from criminal enterprises,” according to their official website.

Grimes, 42, previously weighed in on the concept for Marshals before its premiere.

“I’m my own worst critic,” Grimes told Entertainment Weekly in February 2026. “I was like, ‘If you take a poll of who people want to have a spinoff, I don’t know if Kayce would be top of that list. I think there’s other characters that they would rather see.’”

Grimes used that as motivation, adding, “So there was a fire under me. Like, it has to be good. If it’s not good, I’d rather not do it. We tried really hard to make sure that any of the original Yellowstone fans would have something to grasp onto.”

He continued: “But if you’d never seen Yellowstone, we wanted this show to make sense on its own as well. I think we accomplished that as much as we possibly could.”

Related: A Guide to ‘Yellowstone‘ and Its Many Spinoffs Amid Ongoing Delays

Since Yellowstone debuted in 2018, the story of the Dutton family has had enough potential to inspire six spinoffs (and counting) to add to the Paramount Network roster — but with that has come delays. Yellowstone focuses on a powerful family that runs the largest contiguous ranch in the United States. Amid their success, the […]

Despite getting the chance to lead his own show, Grimes was unsure what the story would be.

“They started bringing it up when we were filming the last few episodes of the original series. There started to be some offers for a spinoff, and I hadn’t gotten one yet, and I was like, ‘I guess that’s it for me,’” Grimes recalled. “And then I got a call and it was like, ‘It’ll be CBS primetime, and it’ll be more of a procedural format.’”

Marshals airs on CBS Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.