[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Marshals.]

Director Greg Yaitanes has entered the Yellowstone universe by putting his stamp on episodes of the CBS series Marshals, which has already been picked up for Season 2, and the upcoming Paramount+ series Dutton Ranch. In Marshals, a widowed Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) joins an elite unit of U.S. Marshals, headed by his former Navy SEAL buddy Cal (Logan Marshall-Green), combining his tactical training with his cowboy skills in bringing range justice to Montana. While over on Dutton Ranch, Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) will continue their journey of survival, no doubt with plenty of chaos and drama surrounding them.

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Yaitanes (Presumed Innocent, House of the Dragon, House) about coming into the world of Yellowstone as a big fan, and how the spin-offs/sequels are most similar and different from not just the original series but each other. During the interview, he talked about reuniting with Quarry star Marshall-Green while directing the first two episodes of Marshals, why he’s drawn to the character of Kayce Dutton, how he felt about the way Monica’s death was handled, the challenges of shooting the big action sequence in episode two of Marshals, why Dutton Ranch felt like a season of Yellowstone, and whether there could be crossovers with the Dutton family in the future.

We also got to discuss how far into Season 2 development they’d gotten on Quarry before the plug was pulled on the series, his time on Banshee, what most impressed him about working with Anya Taylor-Joy on her upcoming Apple TV series Lucky, and why working with Nicolas Cage on the Spider-Noir TV series was a dream come true that he hopes to repeat if there’s a second season.

‘Marshals’ Marked a Reunion for Actor Logan Marshall-Green and Director Greg Yaitanes, After Making ‘Quarry’ Together

“We would all do another season in a heartbeat.”

Collider: I love that you’re reuniting with Logan Marshall-Green by directing episodes of Marshals, but it also reminds me of how salty I am that we never got more episodes of Quarry. Have you gotten over that fact?

GREG YAITANES: We wrote Season 2, and we were on track for Season 2. For a variety of reasons, it didn’t move forward, which was gut-wrenching. We had the scripts. We had a great arc. We just lost Tom Noonan a few weeks ago. The great thing is that it’s a show you could pick up 10 years later with that character. There’s no expiration date. The novels actually are around now, in terms of Logan’s age. Now, Logan’s on a smash TV show, so getting him would be impossible. I had lunch with (co-creator) Michael Fuller, yesterday, actually. It was supposed to be me and (co-creator) Graham [Gordy] and Michael, and Graham’s travel changed, so we didn’t get to have lunch with them. But we’re still in touch. We would all do another season in a heartbeat. It would be perfect. Every single person involved would do it. That said, it was really lovely to see Logan on Marshals and be able to get the opportunity to work with him again.

You said that the scripts were written for Season 2 of Quarry. Were there things that you had been looking forward to getting to do with the second season?

YAITANES: Oh, my God, it was a great season. It was going to be great. The specifics, I don’t remember all the details, but we did have a writers’ room, we wrote the scripts, and we had versions of all the scripts for the season. And then, right in the middle of the process, that’s when we got word that we weren’t moving forward. It was disappointing. But what’s nice is that, 10 years later, I’m on Zooms and people still bring it up. It is meaningful that it had an impact.

Was Season 2 going to have the same tone and vibe, or was it going to be bigger in any way?

YAITANES: It was going to be a pretty direct continuation of where we were. I think we were going to pick up a year later. There was a great story to be had.

It makes me feel lucky that I got a complete four-season story for Banshee. I wonder if that could even happen now.

YAITANES: It was a great time to tell that story the way we told it and how we cast it and a number of things that we did would be almost impossible today. There was a great article written about everything that conspired to have Cinemax not quite work out. It really bummed us all out because I really thought that could have been a great network for high and elevated pulp. I don’t know how it would have survived all the various things that are going on in the industry today. But back then, when they were making The Knick and Quarry and Banshee and Outcast and Strike Back, I just kept imagining that this would be a seven-day-a-week, two-shows-a-night of incredible programming. That would have been something I would have died to have had as a network when I was a teenager.

Even Warrior.

YAITANES: Can’t forget Warrior.

All those shows were so good. It felt like a channel that was just invented for my taste.

YAITANES: Someone someday will talk about it. It will be like ‘70s cinema for TV when they look back on all the great stuff that was on Cinemax at one time.

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How did you end up directing Marshals? Was it because of Logan Marshall-Green, or was that a coincidence?

YAITANES: No. It was a long process. I met (executive producer) David Glasser at 101 about three years earlier, and we had wanted to work together. They wanted me to come do some of their shows, and I really wanted to do something from the ground up with them. And then, I was watching MobLand and realized that was also being produced by 101. I wrote David, and I think I just happened to be in his head at the right moment, at the right time, and I got the call to take a look at Marshals and see if I’d be interested. I was an insane fan of Yellowstone. I had watched all the prequels and I had watched the other series, all in real time, week to week, so I knew the world. I got the material and showed up for a meeting relatively quickly. Spencer Hudnut was really great to collaborate with. Everything just vibed on the call. It was three years in the making.

‘Marshals’ Director Greg Yaitanes Was Drawn to the Soulful Nature of Kayce Dutton

“I loved working with Luke [Grimes].”

What do you find most interesting about Kayce Dutton as a character at the center of this story?

YAITANES: I also did a block of Dutton Ranch, right after I finished Marshals. When I read it, I didn’t know it was a broadcast pilot. That’s how good I thought the material was. It had such humanity and breathing and just the room to explore themes. I felt like it was a great father-son story when I read the script, and that’s what brought me to it. I thought, wherever Yellowstone was going, this was the continuation because it played like that. When I found out it was broadcast, I hadn’t done broadcast TV for 15 years, since House, so I thought this was a great way to reenter that space again, to a place where I cut my teeth and built things. Kayce is such a soulful character. I don’t know or remember what season and episode it was, but his walkabout episode sold me, as a man trying to work through what he’s carrying. I was really interested.

My first question when I got the scripts, as I was reading them, was, “How are they going to undo Kayce’s happy ending?” He really had a beautiful finish at the end of Yellowstone proper. And I was really moved to see, “Okay, life has gone in another direction.” I almost feel like [episode two] is really the pilot, and [the pilot] was the bridge between Yellowstone and Marshals. [Episode two] is really the show you’re going to be watching. I directed that episode, as well. I loved working with Luke [Grimes]. And then, to have Logan as your wingman, there’s such a deep bench with the cast. Tatanka [Means], I brought from Banshee. He was on Banshee when his dad passed, who was also on Banshee. It was great. I loved working with Spencer, and we had a lovely shorthand.

Fans of Yellowstone definitely seem to feel a certain way about Monica’s death. Were there conversations about how to handle that?

YAITANES: This is why it didn’t strike me as a pilot. There was no exposition about Monica’s death in the pilot. It was exactly what it would be like a year or two after the death of the character. You would be talking about the circumstances around it versus talking about the thing. What was really important was that we had her picture for the protest, and she was lovely to give us permission for that. That was a really critical piece to that scene. That’s what I thought that scene was about.

It feels like there could have been an episode that included Monica and would have shown us what happened to her. It was interesting to see that it was not handled that way.

YAITANES: Yeah, that’s all Spencer. Those conversations definitely preceded me. Immediately, being a single dad to a son, which was something I could personally connect to, having been a single dad at various times in my life, I felt that the way it was handled and the humanity in which it was handled was really beautiful, and I wanted to be part of it.

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Have you thought about the parallels between Quarry and Marshals? You have these characters at the center of both stories that have been to war, they’ve had to kill people, they’ve had violence affect and ripple through their lives, and they’re also more likely to be quiet and internal. They seem like kindred spirits in a lot of ways. Is that something that was even on your mind?

YAITANES: There’s definitely a theme and a pattern to the things that I’m attracted to, which is quiet, internal men, carrying a lot and trying to navigate things with the tools they were given, and always striving for better.

Something that runs through Banshee and Marshals are these intertwined communities. With Banshee, we had the Amish community, and with Marshals, you have the reservation. What do you find most interesting about that aspect of the story?

YAITANES: We’re not pandering to anybody. That’s just what makes the world lived-in. If you watched all six seasons, or Season 5A and 5B, of Yellowstone, then you’re going to come loaded with a certain amount of information. And if you’re not, you’re going to catch up. You can enter this show having never watched one Taylor Sheridan show. And if you have, it will be a richer experience, but you will not be dinged for not having been there. In fact, what’s exciting is that this is an entry point for people to then go discover Yellowstone, which makes me thrilled. If they like this enough to want to know more about Kayce, then you have six seasons of a prequel waiting for you.

Real Navy SEAL Consultants Work as Advisors for the Story and the Action Sequences in ‘Marshals’

“At every point, you have a guide for how to do things.”

Image via CBS

You’ve shot action sequences and violence for the screen, and particularly in Quarry and Banshee, the action had a very realistic feel to it, as far as the toll it can take. How different was it to do action sequences for Marshals, for a broadcast network TV series? You have a very complex action sequence in episode two.

YAITANES: I loved planning that. Michael Friedman was my second unit director on that, and he’s intimately familiar with the Sheridan universe, in terms of Lioness and Landman, and every other thing he touches. So, having him in my corner was a great collaboration on that. I really studied Yellowstone and the studio has a really helpful document of the pillars of the things that make Yellowstone, Yellowstone, that they kept for the prequels and they branched out. At every point, you have a guide for how to do things. What I always appreciate about the violence and the action is that it’s grounded. It’s not overly stylized.

Banshee was highly stylized and pulpy. Everything in Yellowstone is grounded and comes from a real place. People get punched and hurt. My favorite part of the action is that we get to tap into the Navy SEAL background to Kayce. That allows for all this tactical work. We have real Navy SEALs there. Ryan Sangster was our advisor, and he’s great. I would just say, “What would they do? How would they come up on the trailer or the zone of death? How would they go about it?” We would approach it like, “Okay, this is really happening. Where would your guys be?” And he’d be like, “Well, I’d have a person there, and I’d have a thing here, and I’d make sure of this.” And I was like, “Great, that’s what we’re doing.”

That scene goes from horses to a big shootout and then back to Kayce being back on a horse.

YAITANES: That was so fun. I wanted it to be like Raiders of the Lost Ark. When I was showing people what I wanted it to be, that sequence had to be as fun as something out of Raiders. I definitely got out of the grounded and made it a little more pop and fun for that sequence because it had to be. You can’t have Kayce chasing an SUV [on a horse] and not have a good time with it. It was so cool.

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“We had to shake up his life.”

Did you feel like you had the time you needed to shoot all of that?

YAITANES: Nope. One of the shocks was just coming from my streaming schedule back to my broadcast schedule. That said, because of shows like Banshee, I’m really good at being able to matrix the units and the work so that the sum of the parts is greater than you could expect. We were incredibly strategic. Anytime Luke wasn’t in the zone of death scene, he was on horseback with the other unit. We were trading him and moving around and had blocked out the day in a very strategic way. It was two days, that whole sequence. Everything you saw was shot over two days, sunup to sundown.

It was so interesting to have that sequence end with him shooting the guy that’s already dying. It’s a moment that brings you back to the reality of what Kayce is dealing with, after the exciting action sequence ends.

YAITANES: Yeah, it gets real. He’s a complicated character. He’s got a badge, but he’s still exacting his own form of justice. It keeps the audience perfectly destabilized for what Kayce might do. You can’t fully understand him, which I appreciate. That moment particularly grabbed me. When I read these scripts – I read the first two when I took my meetings – those were the kinds of things that pulled me right in.

‘Marshals’ and ‘Dutton Ranch’ Each Draw From ‘Yellowstone’ in Completely Different Ways

“[‘Dutton Ranch’] has the best parts of what I loved about ‘Yellowstone.'”

Image via Paramount Network

You talked about also directing episodes of Dutton Ranch. Are you just all-in on the world of Yellowstone now?

YAITANES: I was halfway through shooting on Marshals, and Glasser was like, “Hey, you’ve done the down and dirty, scrappy version of Yellowstone. Come do our other show.” That was a completely different, but equally rewarding experience. I loved Kelly [Reilly] and Cole [Hauser] and Annette [Bening] and Ed [Harris] and everybody. That cast is just so terrific. I had time. It’s artful. It’s just a different kind of show. It’s much more of a drama and a soap. It has the best parts of what I loved about Yellowstone. Each one was Yellowstone in completely different ways, but each completely honest to the original series. My entry point into the Sheridan universe was starting with Yellowstone and then branching out. I really appreciate David Glasser’s taste. I watched The Agency. I watched MobLand. I watched them all. I’m interested in working with people of good taste.

What did you see as the biggest similarities and differences between the two shows, Marshals and Dutton Ranch?

YAITANES: The biggest similarity is that I’m following each of the surviving siblings of the original series. When you get into the ranch portion of each show, you’re on common ground. That’s what they have in common. And then, how we’re dealing with the human drama and the vulnerability is Yellowstone in both shows. The themes that everybody’s working with, like how everybody deals with their inner torment and how they exorcise it is different for Beth than it is for Kayce. They’re equally compelling offshoots of the original.

Which episodes did you direct for Dutton Ranch?

YAITANES: I did the second block. I did episodes three and four. Christina Voros did the opening two and the end two. It was really fun. It was a lovely invitation. Dutton Ranch has more continuity of crew from the original series. There was something fun about trying to create Yellowstone without a lot of the same craftspeople. Michael, David, and some other people came in to really give us a boot camp on what Yellowstone is and how to execute on it.

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I spoke to Luke Grimes recently, and we were talked about how it would be cool to see Kayce and Beth together again at some point, and he said that he didn’t know if it would work better to bring her into Marshals or to send him over to Dutton Ranch.

YAITANES: That’s a really good question. We talked about that a lot because each wanted to be on the other show. I feel like Kayce should go to Dutton Ranch. That feels like something that I would lose my shit over as a fan. That would be pretty cool. I just don’t know, in the world of what Marshals is, if Beth coming in would fit into that quite as well. Kayce would just naturally fold into Dutton Ranch because there’s a tonal similarity to the original Yellowstone. A lot of the people involved with Dutton Ranch really felt like they were making Yellowstone Season 6. Marshals is much more genre and guns-forward and those kinds of cool things.

Director Greg Yaitanes Is Excited for Viewers To See the Upcoming Apple TV Series ‘Lucky,’ Starring Anya Taylor-Joy

“When I got the call about that, I was all over it.”

Image via Apple TV

With what I’ve seen of Lucky, that’s another project that looks badass, but this time with a woman, with Anya Taylor-Joy, at the center of it. What drew you to that? What do you love about that character and what she brings to the role?

YAITANES: I’ve wanted to work with Anya since I saw The Witch, and it was Jonathan Tropper again, so when I got the call about that, I was all over it. I got to meet Cassie Pappas, who was showrunning with Jonathan. It was just a great character. And then, my daughter is obsessed with Drew Starkey, from watching Outer Banks. It was Annette [Bening] again and Clifton Collins, and our collaboration was 30 years in the making. And it was Timothy Olyphant and Aunjanue [Ellis-Taylor]. It was a deep bench of great actors in an L.A. crime story. The bench is so deep on that show. It was very similar to how I felt on Presumed Innocent. I’d just go to work every day and look at who was going to be working with who, and it was just exciting to know what I was going to get to do with these pairings. Everybody on the callsheet was a great actor, so watching them work together was a pleasure.

What most impressed you about Anya Taylor-Joy and the work that she does in the series?

YAITANES: It’s really good. I directed episodes two and three of Lucky, which was almost like doing part two of the pilot. It’s a very continuous, interesting story that has got a lot of complexity to it. Anya is great at bringing that kind of nuance and humanity. There’s also something other and unknowable about her that makes me always lean into what she’s doing and what she might be thinking. Just to get to see her every day and be able to craft that performance with her was such a treat.

Her face and her eyes are just incredible. I feel like they do so much work.

YAITANES: Anytime, anywhere that she ever does something else, I’m there.

Directing Episodes of the Prime Video Series ‘Spider-Noir’ Was a Dream Come True for Greg Yaitanes

“I am such a noir nut.”

Image via Prime Video

It’s interesting that you did episodes of Spider-Noir because that feels like a bit different of a project for you. What were the challenges specific to doing that series?

YAITANES: I am such a noir nut that when it came up to the plate, my film school self was all over it. I just ate up noir and it heavily influenced my early work. To be able to dial into and be able to create something that was in the spirit of that was awesome. And then, Nic [Cage] is incredible. I collected comic books from 13 to 18, and then a bit in my 20s. Comic books were truly my escape. There were four different Spider-Man comics, and every week I could get a Spider-Man fix. To imagine that I, who went as Spider-Man for Halloween or played Spider-Man when we would do imaginary play, could go back in time to my 14-year-old comic book-reading self that I would be directing a Spider-Man TV show, I’d think that I was a pretty lucky guy at that point. I really won.

Nic Cage seems like somebody who is just a big kid who doesn’t know how to not have fun.

YAITANES: He’s a big kid. He brought that energy. He was off-book for every episode. He was the first to set. He was the kindest to everybody. He was just terrific. He would just give you great ideas. He could take direction beautifully. He was just a dream. I have literally been watching him since before high school. I had to fangirl him at the beginning. I showed him that my wife has the original painting that became the poster for Valley Girl. I got my fangirling out of the way at the beginning.

He seems totally down for that, though.

YAITANES: He’s down. He’s so funny. We were between takes, and I was like, “Did you ever go to Japan to make commercials?” And he was like, “Oh, my God!” and he got his phone to show them to us and was cracking up with us. He’s in on all of it.

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Do you feel like you’ve gotten your fill of noir, or do you feel like you need to do more now because of that?

YAITANES: Oh, my God, if that show has a second season, I’m going to be the first to raise my hand and go back. Every day, I had a great time. I came home from work so excited. I did the final two episodes, so they’re pretty spectacular. I cannot wait for everybody to see it.

Release Date

2026 – 2026

Showrunner

Spencer Hudnut

Writers

Spencer Hudnut, Tom Mularz, Dana Greenblatt

Marshals airs on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+.