Yellowstone alum Kelsey Asbille made a brief return to social media over the weekend to celebrate Paris Fashion Week, days after her character’s shocking death in the premiere episode of the franchise’s new spinoff, Marshals.
Asbille, 34, starred as Monica Dutton, the wife of ranch handler Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes), in all six seasons of Taylor Sheridan’s Western drama, from 2018 to 2024.
However, due to scheduling conflicts, she did not reprise her role in Marshals, which follows Kayce as he embarks on a new chapter serving with an elite unit of the U.S. Marshals. Instead, it was revealed in the show’s debut episode that Monica had died from cancer off-screen.
Asbille has still not publicly addressed her character’s unceremonious death, though on Saturday, she shared a rare photo on Instagram of her look at the Rabanne show at Paris Fashion Week. In the picture, she is wearing a matching gray skirt suit, holding a silver fringe purse.
Meanwhile, Yellowstone fans flooded the post’s comment section expressing their outrage over Monica’s unexpected death.
“The way they wrote Monica off the new show is beyond me,” one person said. “Kayce loved Monica so much. Won’t be watching Marshals because Monica is not in it. Shame!!!”
“So sad your character has left with the premiere episode of Marshals,” a second wrote. “Have a good relaxing weekend.”
“We miss Monica,” a third added, followed by a fourth, who argued that the show’s writers “took the lazy way out” with Monica’s fate. “Miss you and the character that you brought to life,” they added.
“Moving on,” another insisted. “You don’t need [Yellowstone] to be great.”
Monica’s immediate death in Marshals was not the original plan. Showrunner, executive producer, and writer Spencer Hudnut recently told The Hollywood Reporter that when he initially pitched Sheridan the spinoff, the two had gone through several ideas with Paramount before learning that Asbille was not available for the new series.
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Hudnut said that Asbille’s absence cleared the way for them to use Monica’s death as motivation for Kayce’s storyline. In the premiere episode, it’s revealed that Monica’s cancer was likely caused by toxic contamination in the Broken Rock reservation, leading Kayce on a quest for vengeance against the perpetrators.
“It wasn’t like Luke and I were sitting there saying, ‘We should kill Monica,’” Hudnut clarified. “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?’”
In an interview with The Times published after the show’s premiere, Grimes said: “I think fans will be upset — and they should be. Kayce is very upset. It’s the worst thing that could have happened to him. But as much as I’m really upset not to work with Kelsey, it’s a good idea for the show.
“His dream life is no longer available to him. Now the only thing he has is his son, who is not so sure he wants the same life as Kayce,” he continued. “A big part of the season is Kayce learning how to manage all these new things — new job, being a single father.”
New episodes of Marshals release Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. They are available to stream on Paramount+ the following day.
