Yellowstone‘s Kelsey Asbille was “not available” for Luke Grimes‘ Marshals spinoff, which ultimately led to Monica’s offscreen death.
Marshals showrunner told The Hollywood Reporter after the series premiere earlier this month that Asbille was “unavailable for the new series,” adding, “When that happened, it cleared up what that thing was for Kayce [that would drive him].”
Hudnut clarified that it wasn’t the goal to kill off Monica.
“It wasn’t like Luke and I were sitting there saying, ‘We should kill Monica,’” he noted. “It was more like, ‘If she’s not available for this, then what’s the best way to move on from that character in the least exploitive way?’”
Paramount Network’s Yellowstone, which aired from 2018 to 2024, introduced Us to Kayce (Grimes) and Monica, who remained at the center of the show until the finale. After her time as a teacher at a local school on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation, Monica went on to become a professor at Montana State University while navigating life with Kayce, who moved them back to the Yellowstone Ranch following his past tension with dad John (Kevin Costner).
Following John’s death, Kayce, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, became the new owner and operator of the Yellowstone Ranch. Kayce and Monica ended the show alive — and together — before Marshals began.
“The original conversation was that it has to be something. There was the thought of, “Maybe we find him and he’s just bored because he was protecting his family and was a Navy SEAL, so then actually a calm life is not for him, which is a path,’” Hudnut said about the motivation for a spinoff. “But probably not a satisfying enough path for Kayce. Then, truthfully, as we were trying to figure it out, Monica was not one of the ingredients that was available to me.”
Hudnut clarified that he didn’t speak with Asbille before it was decided that Monica would be written off, adding, “No, I wasn’t part of any of that, so I can’t really speak to how or why that played out the way it did. But when that happened, it cleared up what that thing was for Kayce.”
He continued: “And I think the way we’ve done it, my goal was to not undermine that journey in Yellowstone because they do have [the dream] — she says, “This is a dream come true” at the end of it. They did achieve that. They did get what they finally wanted, and, unfortunately, life just intervened and disrupted everything that Kayce wanted. So that’s where we find him in Marshals.”
The Marshals series premiere revealed that Kayce’s wife previously died after she got cancer as a result of toxins dumped onto the Broken Rock reservation.
“It was important to me to honor her death and give it a little more meaning. Of course there’s the version where you really exploit it and she’s just been killed, and he needs the [Marshals] badge to get vengeance for her,” Hudnut explained. “But Kayce Dutton doesn’t need a badge to go out and do something like that. It felt like he would be coming in at a different temperature than we wanted.”
Hudnut defended the narrative choice.
“So as I started thinking about the inciting incident, it felt like tying her death to a real-life issue that we could shine a little bit of a spotlight on [was right]. Our reservations have really high cancer rates, and it’s because of all the terrible things that have been done to them,” he said. “So that felt like a way to honor that character, and she is kind of guiding Kayce. Tate is at that rally because of his mother, and Kayce’s there to protect Tate. So without Monica, maybe Kayce doesn’t find that path. So we will continue to explore [that].”
He concluded: “I think Kayce is a little bit behind his son in terms of accepting the loss of Monica, and really embracing his grief. We will revisit that period a little bit and also really explore in the first half of the season Kayce’s journey of trying to let go and really accept that she’s gone.”
As for whether romance is in the cards for Kayce?
“I do think the first part of the season is him trying to figure out how to let go of Monica,” he said. “Over a year has passed. So I think if he’s able to achieve that, it will open him up to some possibilities.”
Marshals airs on CBS Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
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