One of the pleasures of Taylor Sheridan’s cable and streaming series — shows like “Yellowstone,” “1883,” and “Landman,” which have attracted large and fervent fanbases — is the sense of scale provided by the schedules and budgets of prestige television. When writer Spencer Hudnut was tasked with creating a “Yellowstone” spinoff, “Marshals,” for CBS, he knew one of his biggest challenges would be making a network procedural that still felt like part of Taylor Sheridan’s universe.
“We have a fraction of the budget and a fraction of the time,” Hudnut told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast of his show’s resources when compared to the “Yellowstone” mother ship, noting that some episodes are shot in as few as six days — an insanely challenging schedule for a 43-minute show filled with ensemble action. Luckily, Hudnut came to “Marshals” after seven years on another broadcast series, “SEAL Team,” which taught him how to make the most of his time and money.
That experience came in handy, given the fast pace with which “Marshals” got off the ground. The series, which follows “Yellowstone” protagonist Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) as he begins a new life as a U.S. Marshal following the death of his beloved wife, premiered only about a year after Hudnut first pitched it to CBS. “This show did not have a normal development cycle,” Hudnut said. Before Hudnut came up with the idea that would eventually become the series, he spent months kicking ideas back and forth with CBS.
“All they knew was that they wanted to do something with Kayce for CBS,” Hudnut said, “and that it had to have a procedural engine to it.” After running through some ideas that didn’t work, Hudnut eventually sat down with Sheridan, and the show that would become “Marshals” began to crystallize. “I pitched him an idea that, within 60 seconds, he turned it into ‘Marshals.’”
Agreeing on a concept with Sheridan meant Hudnut was “70 percent of the way there”; to make the show happen, however, one important person remained to be convinced.
“Taylor was enthusiastic and really helped shape it, and then he was like, ‘Oh, by the way, we need to get Luke on board,” Hudnut said. The only problem: Luke Grimes, who had created the character of Kayce Dutton on “Yellowstone,” had been very vocal about not wanting to put the cowboy hat back on after “Yellowstone” finished its run. “I had people at Luke’s agency telling me, ‘Yeah, he’s not going to want to do this.’” Luckily, Hudnut had a terrific FaceTime call with Grimes, during which Grimes not only became enthusiastic about returning to the character but also began to actively contribute to the development.
“A lot of his ideas found their way into the show,” Hudnut said. Once Grimes was on board and the concept was established — that Kayce would pick up his badge again following the death of his wife Monica — the trick became honoring “Yellowstone” while also creating something completely new, a balance that required some trial and error on Hudnut’s part.
“Trying to keep as much as what resonated with the ‘Yellowstone’ audience alive was part of the goal, but there’s a balancing act of bringing it to CBS. How are we bringing enough to people who have never seen ‘Yellowstone,’ and how are we spoon-feeding that to them without it being overwhelming? At the same time, how are we servicing this CBS audience that’s used to a certain type of storytelling?” he said.
Initially, Hudnut was intent on proving he could replicate the original show’s storytelling style, but Sheridan urged him to make “Marshals” his own. “I think for the first few episodes I felt like I needed to do a bit of a Taylor Sheridan cover band thing with some of the characters,” Hudnut said. “It took me a minute to just settle in and realize, you’ve got to do your own version of this.”
Although Hudnut felt a certain amount of pressure to live up to the standard “Yellowstone” had established, he was somewhat liberated by the accelerated schedule. “The show was put together very quickly,” Hudnut said. “I think it was good for me, because stepping into that ‘Yellowstone’ universe is daunting. The baton being passed from Taylor Sheridan, who to me is the greatest writer of the last 20 years, could have really been an albatross. But we literally just had to get the second outline done, so the speed was our ally.”
That said, Hudnut wouldn’t have minded just a little more prep time. “These actors were showing up who had never held a gun before, never been on horseback,” Hudnut said. “We could have used a little more time to coach them tactically and in terms of the cowboy stuff. But do think continual forward motion is an asset to production.”
One way Hudnut replicated the beauty and expansiveness of “Yellowstone” on a broadcast schedule was by allocating the cast and crew’s energy toward certain key sequences; for scenes between Kayce and his son on their land, for example, he was careful to take the necessary time to craft “Yellowstone”-like moments and imagery. For the more traditional procedural beats in locations like the marshals’ bullpen or their favorite bar, the crew was encouraged to move at a faster pace in keeping with what Hudnut had learned on “SEAL Team.”
Acclimating collaborators who came from the “Yellowstone” world to this aspect of network procedural filmmaking was an important part of getting “Marshals” up and running. “This was part of the education for people who hadn’t done broadcast before,” Hudnut said. “These sets, we’re going to be in all the time.”
Again, however, Hudnut wanted continuity with the “Yellowstone” visual style. “The blueprint for the bar was to make it feel like it’s from the ‘Yellowstone’ universe, and that this is somewhere where you could have seen Beth or Rip or any of the other characters at some point.”
With the first season behind him, Hudnut is now beginning work on Season 2 and hoping to implement improvements based on what he learned the first time around. “On any first-season show, there are things you’re learning as you go,” Hudnut said. “From a budget and time standpoint, we got really good and really efficient as the season went along. Moving into Season 2, we can think a little bigger and up the scale and up the scope. We can swing a little bigger.”
“Marshals” is now streaming on Paramount+. To hear the entire conversation with Spencer Hudunut and make sure you don’t miss a single episode of Filmmaker Toolkit, subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.
