Why, Marshals?
CBS has quietly changed the title of Taylor Sheridan’s next-coming Yellowstone spinoff Y: Marshals to just Marshals. Why ditch the Y? Well, maybe because it just sounds cleaner. Or maybe it’s because the guy who created the Yellowstone universe is ditching Paramount.
Y: Marshals was a working title, a CBS rep told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, and now the series has been finalized as just Marshals. That’s both accurate and a bit inaccurate. When Y: Marshals was first announced on May 7, 2025, it did come with the “working title” designation. But all subsequent press materials dropped the “working title” part, which is stylized as a parenthetical — the standard Hollywood formatting — from the title. In the most-recent press release about the series, circulated on Nov. 24, the series was still called Y: Marshals, and in private communications from CBS to THR the following day, it was Y: Marshals.
When pressed on those points this afternoon, the CBS spokesperson told THR that the “Y” was “always considered silent” internally.
The rep had previously pointed out that though the series is no longer called Y: Marshals, the “Y” will remain in the show’s logo, as illustrated in the below key art photo, courtesy of CBS.
In Marshals, Kayce rides with his grown son Tate (Brecken Merrill). He sold the family Montana ranch and plans to stake out a new beginning. The Marshals cast also includes Yellowstone stars Gil Birmingham and actor/consultant Mo Brings Plenty reprising their roles. Notably missing from the cast list is Kelsey Asbille, who played Kayce Dutton’s wife Monica.
The stylized consonant (and sometimes vowel!) is the symbol for the Dutton Ranch, the one Kayce Dutton (Marshals star Luke Grimes) left behind when leaving Yellowstone behind for Y: Marshals. (To be fair, everyone left Yellowstone behind at that point. In the series finale, Kayce dipped from the Dutton Ranch to lead a team of U.S. Marshals in Montana.)
Yes, this is probably a silly non-troversy I’ve cooked up on a slow news day — unless it isn’t.
Networks are very specific about their titles. I can recall a CBS press breakfast in 2018 in which we spent a pretty good portion discussing the reason there was no comma in the network’s Magnum, P.I. remake, stylized as Magnum P.I.
So what’s the conspiracy theory here? We need to start with some background.
The Yellowstone universe is as sprawling as the Dutton Ranch acreage. There’s the O.G. Yellowstone, a Paramount Network smash hit that streamed (and still streams) on Peacock, not Paramount+. In addition to Marshals, Yellowstone spawned prequels 1883 and 1923, and upcoming spinoff The Madison (starring newbies to the uni like Michelle Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell, Patrick J. Adams and Matthew Fox) and sequel series Dutton Ranch (working title), which will showcase the post-Yellowstone lives of Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser).
Outside of the Yellowstone universe but inside of Sheridan’s portfolio are Landman, Tulsa King (and it’s own spinoff NOLA King), Lioness and Mayor of Kingstown, which is coming to a conclusion with its fifth season. (We also questioned the timing of that decision.)
Soon enough, Sheridan will be leaving Paramount for the greener pastures of NBCUniversal. His film deal moves over in a matter of months, though his television contract still has nearly two years left. Sheridan will leave all of these shows behind when he rides off into that sunset. It is possible that Paramount, who attempted to retain Sheridan only to lose him to its biggest rival, wants to optically move away from Sheridan’s greatest creation (keep an eye on the Dutton Ranch working title!) should Marshals go on when its creator sheriff moves to another town. Or maybe it’s just because Y: Marshals was a confusing name. (You know, like a silent “Y.”)
The CBS rep denied to THR that the name change had anything to do with sour grapes, pointing out that all press stories already reference Marshals‘ connection to Yellowstone.
Marshals premieres March 1 at 8 p.m. on CBS, streaming on Paramount+.
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