Luke Grimes Hasn't Spoken to Kevin Costner Since Yellowstone — But Would Welcome a Marshals Reunion

He swapped Los Angeles for the Montana mountains, traded ensemble drama for top billing, and now leads the most-watched show on broadcast television. But as Luke Grimes settles into his new life as the undisputed star of CBS's Marshals, one question keeps following him into the spotlight: whatever happened between him and Kevin Costner?

Grimes played Kayce Dutton — the brooding, fiercely loyal son of Costner's patriarch John Dutton — across all five seasons of Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan's era-defining Western drama. When Costner made his widely reported exit midway through the show's fifth and final season in 2024, the fallout rippled through the entire cast. Now, speaking to USA Today, Grimes has confirmed that the two men have simply not been in contact since.

It is a quietly telling admission, though Grimes is at pains to keep the tone diplomatic. He has not always been quite so measured on the subject. Speaking to Esquire in 2024, he remarked that Costner's absence had made the final season "the easiest season we've filmed," adding that "there was a part of Kevin being gone that meant some of the conflict was gone." He was careful to add that he was "not pointing any fingers" — but the sentiment landed all the same.

With Marshals now into its second season — and riding high as CBS's biggest hit — speculation has swirled about whether Costner might make a cameo appearance, perhaps via flashback. Grimes's answer is honest and a little wistful.

"I think that would be cool," he told USA Today, before tempering expectations. "I doubt that would happen, at this point." More revealingly, he suggested that if a flashback were ever on the cards, he would actually prefer it to feature Kayce's estranged wife Monica — played by Kelsey Asbille — rather than John Dutton. "I think that would be more poignant to the character," he said. "There's been no conversation, but I sure would love it. I love working with her."

Asbille did not reprise the role of Monica when Marshals launched its first season, making her absence one of the more notable elements of the spinoff's early episodes. The second season premiered on CBS on Sunday 4th October with what viewers are calling a nail-biting opener, including the death of at least one major character.

Away from the drama surrounding his former co-star, Grimes is clearly in a good place. He left Los Angeles in 2019 after 16 years in the city, relocating to Montana with his wife, Brazilian model Bianca Rodrigues Grimes, and their now two-year-old son. Filming Marshals keeps him in Park City, Utah, for seven or eight months of the year — "a good second home," he calls it — but the move west has fundamentally shaped who he is both on and off screen.

Fatherhood, he says, has given him a far richer understanding of Kayce's defining characteristic: his ferocious love for his son Tate. "I do know now the crazy amount of love that you can have for your child," Grimes told Yahoo. "I don't think anybody does until you become a parent — what kind of love that actually is. It's completely different than anything I've felt for anyone before."

The Ohio native, who first made his name on ABC's Brothers & Sisters before joining the Dutton family, admits that returning to network television was the last thing his younger self would have predicted. Yet here he is, No. 1 on the call sheet of CBS's No. 1 show. Marshals finished its debut season as the most-watched series on broadcast television — a remarkable achievement for a spinoff that had considerable scepticism to overcome.

Sheridan remains an executive producer on the show, but day-to-day creative stewardship now rests with showrunner Spencer Hudnut, something Grimes admits was initially "one of my big fears." The two have found a productive rhythm, with Hudnut describing his own approach as running a "Taylor Sheridan cover band" — preserving Kayce's essence while giving the character new ground to explore.

One of Grimes's own contributions to that process: pushing for the return of fan favourite Jimmy Hurdstrom, played by Jefferson White. "Viewers clearly like seeing people from the original show," he reasoned. "It would be nice to have a new energy — and not only a new energy, but Jimmy's energy, which is incredible."

As for setting the tone on set, Grimes points to a lesson learned from his American Sniper co-star Bradley Cooper. "We all just really, really looked up to him," he recalls. "He lived up to the No. 1 label." It sounds very much like Grimes is making it his mission to do the same.