On “Yellowstone,” Brecken Merrill played Tate Dutton, the son of Luke Grimes’ Kayce Dutton and Kelsey Asbille’s Monica Dutton. Tate is Merrill’s most recognizable role to date. In fact, it’s his only major role to date. But his foray into the Taylor Sheridan-verse isn’t his only experience appearing on a well-known show. After playing Tate for four seasons, Merrill had a brief appearance as “Teen Nicky Jr.” on two season 6 episodes of NBC’s “This Is Us.

Tate Dutton was lucky enough not to be killed off on a show that was infamous for doing just that. Now, Merrill has returned alongside Grimes for “Marshals,” a CBS procedural that also acts as a spin-off from and sequel to “Yellowstone.” Sadly, “Marshals” didn’t get off to the best start when it killed off Monica in the worst way possible: with an off-screen death that isn’t even fully explained in episode 1 of the new spin-off. Still, it’s early days for the new CBS series, which will see Kayce taking care of Tate on his own as he tries to balance his family commitments with a new career as a U.S. Marshal. 

So far, Tate hasn’t had much to do beyond protesting a nearby mine that’s responsible for contaminating a river, which appears to be the cause of Monica’s death. But as the show goes on, we’ll surely see more of Kayce’s son in what is only Merrill’s second time as a main cast member on a TV series. His first was, of course, “Yellowstone.” 

But in 2022, when Sheridan’s neo-Western was between its fourth and fifth seasons, Merrill made a solid addition to his filmography with his small role in the final season of “This Is Us.”

“This Is Us” began airing on NBC in 2016, two years prior to the debut of “Yellowstone” on the Paramount Network. The drama series ran for six seasons until 2022, the same year that “Yellowstone” debuted the first half of its fifth season, which wouldn’t conclude until three years later with the controversial death of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton. With “Yellowstone” on a break, it seems Brecken Merrill took a little time to branch out from the Montana-shot Western series to film two episodes of “This Is Us.”

The NBC drama series followed the lives of two parents and their three children across multiple timeframes. In season 6, episode 17, entitled “The Train,” Merrill played a teen version of Nicky Jr. But, as the actor explained in an interview with Tresa Magazine, it wasn’t entirely clear at first who exactly he was supposed to portray. “A lot of people thought I was Griffin Dunne’s younger self,” he said, in reference to Dunne’s character Nicky Pearson. “But I was actually playing his namesake. Kevin [Justin Hartley] named his son after his uncle.” 

Merrill played Nicky Jr., the son of Hartley’s Kevin Pearson and Caitlin Thompson’s Madison Simons, who was named after Dunne’s character. Nicky Jr. showed up in “The Train” and the following episode, “Us,” which was also the series finale. “The vibe on set was bittersweet,” recalled Merrill. “The cast and crew seemed excited to be moving on but also sad to leave this colorful world they had created.”

Unfortunately, while Brecken Merrill did film a substantial storyline for his version of Nicky Jr. (who had previously been played by Preston Oliver), much of it was cut from the final episodes. In his Tresa Magazine interview, the actor revealed that his character’s storyline saw him doing “a lot of great work with Justin [Hartley], Cait [Thompson] and Alex [Breckenridge],” but most of the scenes ended up being cut for time.

Still, Merrill seemed to enjoy his experience on “This Is Us,” which he admitted was a big change of pace for him coming off “Yellowstone.” Taylor Sheridan’s series was shot on location in Utah and Montana before wrapping up with the “Yellowstone” season 5 finale in 2024. “Filming ‘This Is Us’ was very different for me because I’m used to filming on location, usually in the middle of nowhere,” said Merrill, “and ‘This Is Us’ was filmed on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles.” Clearly, he adapted and spoke of how “special” it was to “be a part of such a beautiful show in its last moments.”

Now, Merrill is set to appear throughout “Marshals” season 1, which hasn’t gotten off to the best start, having continued a depressing trend from “Yellowstone.” Still, Monica Dutton’s death should at least mean there’s more room for Merrill to flex his acting chops, which he’ll also soon do as part of the upcoming “We All Got Up to Dance.” The actor is set to star in this 1960s-set drama, in which he will play a 13-year-old navigating adolescence in the city of Bremerton. He’ll also presumably be back for a second season of “Marshals,” should the spin-off be renewed. Unless he also gets the Monica treatment, that is.