Logo text

[This story contains major spoilers from the season one finale of Marshals, “Wolves at the Door.”]

The first season of Marshals ended with a literal bang that left the life of two characters hanging in the balance, while also placing star Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) and his son Tate (Brecken Merrill) in harm’s way heading into the already renewed second season of the Yellowstone spinoff.

Two members of Kayce’s elite marshals unit — Cal, played by Logan Marshall-Green, and Belle, played by Arielle Kebbel — are ambushed by gunmen working for the Weaver family in the final moments of the season one finale, titled “Wolves at the Door.” The surprise betrayal unveils rancher patriarch Tom Weaver (Chris Mulkey) as the mastermind behind the attacks on Broken Rock chairman Rainwater (Gil Birmingham) and introduces Weaver as a season two villain in a land dispute that the Dutton son isn’t even aware of yet. As Cal and Belle are being shot at, Kayce, who just turned down Tom’s offer to buy his East Camp ranch, is riding off into the sunset with his new love interest, Weaver’s daughter Dolly (Ellyn Jameson), and Kayce’s son Tate is heading off with Tom — neither aware of the threat lurking ahead.

Marshall-Green and Kebbel spoke with The Hollywood Reporter as they begin filming season two to reveal that yes, they are each part of the forthcoming season. But even though Cal and Belle survive that cliffhanger ambush, that doesn’t mean anyone is out of harm’s way yet on Marshals. The drama brings forth showrunner Spencer Hudnut’s plan to create a multi-season hit series post-Yellowstone. Read our chat, combined from two separate interviews, below.

***

Logan, can you confirm if Cal is alive after that finale?

LOGAN MARSHALL-GREEN I can confirm he is alive, but not necessarily unscathed. I think I can confirm that for everybody in the damn show, because everybody’s going through it by the end of this thing. I’m hours away of shooting [season two, episode one]. I can tell you that we’re all going through things — without giving anything away.

Same question for Belle — Arielle, can you confirm that she is also alive after that finale attack?

ARIELLE KEBBEL I am a part of season two, yes. We start filming [season two] with a pick up of that [finale] moment. My head is so deep into season two already.

Logan, when you signed onto the show, did you know Cal’s arc from the start, or were you getting episodes by episodes as you were shooting?

MARSHALL-GREEN I was getting the inner workings of scenes episode by episode, but I knew from the jump a lot of what Cal knew, and what Kayce knew, as you now know after the last episode. I also knew what none of the team knew, which is that I was in Montana not to be a marshal, but to be closer to my estranged daughter. I also knew something that nobody knew, which is that this pain in my neck that you see me playing throughout, which feels muscular, is a very rare form of cancer. And it’s prevalent in soldiers who have been around burn pits. Where we go with that story next is yet to be seen.

You didn’t know that a season two was confirmed when you filmed this cliffhanger ending. So when you each read the finale script, how did you react and what questions did you have for your showrunner, Spencer Hudnut, about if you survive?

KEBBEL After reading that big cliffhanger, I should have asked myself if Belle survives! But the truth is that I’m so used to Belle being in precarious situations almost every episode. And even though both Belle and Cal are there, it felt in that moment that, because Cal is in front, he’s the one in more in danger. I’m behind him, based on where we ended the episode. So when I read it, my head went to, “What’s going to happen to Cal?”

MARSHALL-GREEN “Are we going to have a season two? Are we going to finish this fucking story?” (Laughs.) Because the ball has certainly been placed on the tee. And we’re gonna smack the shit out of it in this first episode of season two.

KEBBEL We pick up immediately in season two where we left off, especially with the Weaver ranch and the looming circumstances there. I think people may be surprised to see just how bad it gets. I really appreciate that, because it’s a nod to the Yellowstone ongoing battle of land and wealth and power and money, and how far people will go to protect their land. It really speaks to that. We pick up in season two feeling the horse and ranch life.

MARSHALL-GREEN It’s complex in how [the Weaver betrayal] is unveiled with season two. The little I know, in the first episode I’ve read, you’re going to get a lot of consequences for all of these actions, but the agenda behind them in regards to all of them — being it Weaver or Dolly — is not going to be what you think, necessarily. And there will be, there will be consequences.

This Weaver betrayal opens you up to a land dispute for season two that Kayce isn’t even aware of yet. Given that this is a Yellowstone spinoff and the big expectations around this series, Marshals of course could go on to become a long-running show. I know Spencer Hudnut hopes for that. How does this ending open up Marshals for more, and are you interested in doing this show for many years?

MARSHALL-GREEN Yeah, I love employment! I love steady income, and I love more than anything this crew and this cast. I could easily see myself making this show for many years. Now — where is the story juiciest, now that we’re dealing with a subject matter like cancer? I don’t wanna sugarcoat it. I don’t want kid gloves on. I don’t want a safe approach. I want Cal to go through it, because I think that is the duty to these men and women who come back from uniform.

And maybe there’s a way, with the advancement of treatments, to have both worlds. But really, in the end, it’s about what stories are left to tell. That’s up to Spencer and the writers, and also Luke [Grimes]. Luke’s been playing this role for a long time. But I think I can speak for everybody when I say that we love coming to work, and, boy, do we come to work. The first season was a grueling shoot.

I understand you Logan had, like, an hour to sign on to the show?

MARSHALL-GREEN Pretty much. I got the offer, and I knew the shoot was in 10 days. I also had not seen Yellowstone. So I quickly watched the pilot and asked some questions. I knew kind of the direction Marshals was going, and I decided to sign on and take the jump.

Have you since watched Yellowstone and indoctrinated yourself in the world, or is it nice to be a little bit outside of it?

MARSHALL-GREEN Nope. I haven’t. And that’s intentional, because Cal has just so many questions. The river has to roll for him, as it has already has for many. I also knew we were not shooting exactly a Yellowstone show, so I didn’t necessarily want a bar we were supposed to be getting over, storytelling-wise or aesthetic-wise. I just knew we needed to tell this story. It’s not about next season. It’s just about this scene or this sentence and this word, and making sure that we’re trying to tell the best story possible with the highest stakes.

Arielle, what can you say about how this ending opens up the show, and, at this point in your career, what’s the experience like being on a hit series that is part of a successful and beloved IP?

KEBBEL I don’t know where this season is going just yet. But what I can say is that whether it’s the Weaver family or another family, the Duttons always find trouble. And I will say that there was a moment where I gasped reading the first episode of season two.

I was very familiar with Yellowstone coming into this. When it first came out, there was nothing like it on television. What Taylor Sheridan has done with Yellowstone and TV with going back to nature, not just cowboy life, but what it means to be living and working on land, and how fierce mother nature can be — and how money and politics and power come into play when you have something that everyone wants — from Yellowstone to Landman, he captures the fierceness when you are up against these elements what these life and death experiences bring, and what it means to herd cattle and live and run businesses off of the land. People either weren’t exploring this, or didn’t know how to do it an authentic way.

Truthfully, I’m still understanding and processing what it even means to have a hit show! I’ve been so fortunate to work consistently for over 20 years, but I’m used to being head down and doing the work. What I keep going back to is that we are fortunate enough to be filming season two as we air this season one finale. I’ve never been on a show that has gone back that fast and that continues to build momentum. That gratitude runs deep in my bones because I know how rare that is and how fortunate we are. I look around season two and I see so many familiar faces from season one with our crew. To know that all these people have jobs and we get to go deeper in season two and be in the grind together, that means something.

When people are watching a show like Marshals, I’m not sure they’re thinking about the art and sacrifice of it, but there is a lot of sacrifice that goes into it. So I’m really grateful that we’re building momentum and have an audience, and I’m really grateful that we have so many crew coming back from season one to season two so we all get to go, “We’re in this together.”

Logan, Cal and Kayce (Grimes) both have their demons. In the finale, Cal understands the “train station” rumors about the Duttons are true, and Kayce finally understands the guilt Cal has been carrying. So he fixes his brotherhood, we also see him connecting with his estranged daughter and pursuing a possible romance with Belle. Aside from his cancer diagnosis, things were coming together for him. How will everything that’s happened change Cal for season two?

MARSHALL-GREEN I mean, everything was going great and then suddenly, they got a couple shotguns in their face. But that’s good news. I don’t ever want us to settle on any of these characters, certainly not Cal. I was really happy with carrying the load knowing that redemption was down the road, and I was very happy to see how he would get his redemption, and Kayce, too, and depressurizing their relationship. While there is a much stronger bond between these two brothers, who were once quite close in the SEALs, they’re still carrying some pretty heavy secrets, both of them. From the little I know about the Duttons and Yellowstone, those secrets usually come back to haunt you. So I hope that happens.

Other Yellowstone and Sheridan shows have had “cowboy camp” and more time for the cast to prep for this lifestyle. As the season went on, were you able to assimilate more into this lifestyle and did you get more prep time for season two?

MARSHALL-GREEN I bought a truck. (Laughs.) You need one for Park City winters. I do have some horsemanship background, which I assume was part of my casting. We did a little bit of cowboy camp, not the old-school Taylor Sheridan cowboy camp, but we had marshals camp. Luke and I both had to learn how to become a fraction of these seals and that was actually the harder part.

[For season two] we just finished a week’s worth [of that training], which has been incredible. We had weapons training, and SEAL training and CQB [Close Quarters Battle] and all of that. We have a SEAL and a Green Beret running the show and we feel very, very supportive and taken care of. If there are any questions, they are answered very quickly. We went very hard leaning on Ryan Sangster last year, our SEAL military consultant.

KEBBEL The horses, luckily, I have in the bag. The rifle work is an ongoing journey. There are days where I feel so empowered and it all clicks and comes together, and then there are days where I look around and get frustrated and I’m struggling and pushing myself to rise to the occasion, and that’s hard. Every day is every different on this show and it’s definitely pushing me in ways that I haven’t been pushed before.

When I came to this job, I thought I had a lot more skills sets than I did! For the last 10 years, I have played characters on television who were extremely physical. But I had never done work with M4s and rifles. And when you’re dealing with mountains and rocky terrain and rivers, and a high altitude in Park City, in real life, you’re body is adjusting. I pride myself on being very strong, but there’s also a point where you go, “Crap, I don’t know if I can keep up with you!” I do it for all the women around me, but it also kicks my ass.

The finale had a long, intense shootout. Were you doing more of your stunts by the end of the season?

MARSHALL-GREEN I fight for every stunt. I fight to keep my stunt double bored, just like they fight to keep me safe. I will always do that. When you’re young and doing your stunts and just starting out, you always have some old timer being like, “Oh, kid, there’ll be a day.” And don’t get me wrong. I understand why they said it, but that’ll never be me. I want the shot and the frame to be as dynamic as it can be, and that means my face doing the damn stuff.

KEBBEL With season one, we had like four days [to prep]. It was nuts. For season two in our training, you’re learning how to load and unload weapons, walk and shoot and move as a team. So it’s not only physical, but also training your brain. It was the type of training I’ve never had before and I’m really grateful for it because I really needed it. And I still need it. I’m asking questions every day.

Now heading into your season two shoot, what do you do when you’re not working?

KEBBEL I have a mustang and I do a lot of work with wild horses and wild horse rescue. My mustang was rescued a night before slaughter through Skydog Sanctuary. I’ve had her for a few years. Season one, I moved her out here [to Utah] and she is the happiest mare on the planet. She’s with a bunch of other rescues. There’s a wonderful organization here called Saving Gracie, and I’ve gotten really close with the founder, Barb Phillips. What’s been so special about filming here is the horse community. I got to spend time with Buck Brannaman, who is the original horse whisperer on set with Robert Redford for the Horse Whisperer, and his family. So when I’m not working, I’m throwing my time into being with my horse and doing rescue work and equine therapy and healing all around. I’m doing holistic training and retraining myself, and I attribute that to my mustang. She has inspired me to start from ground zero and up again. That really excites my soul.

***

Marshals season one is now streaming on Paramount+ and will return for season two on CBS.