Why Did ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff ‘Marshals’ Have to Kill Off Kelsey Asbille’s Monica?

Yellowstone fans were shocked when Marshals killed off Kelsey Asbille‘s character, Monica — but the spinoff may not have had a choice.

Puck reported that Marshals ran into issues when plotting out the new CBS show centered on Kayce Dutton’s (Luke Grimes) life after Yellowstone. To avoid making the new series too identical to its flagship show, Marshals chose to remove Monica from the narrative and shift the voice of the show to be more of a fast-paced procedural.

According to the newsletter, Paramount allegedly worked with lawyers for months on how to successfully feature other Yellowstone leads Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) in their own Dutton Ranch spinoff without facing potential legal issues over their story being too similar to the OG show.

CBS and Paramount have not publicly addressed the Puck report.

Paramount Network’s Yellowstone, which aired from 2018 to 2024, introduced Us to Kayce and his wife, Monica, who remained at the center of the show until the finale. After teaching 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 were still together — before Marshals began.

When the series premiered in March, however, fans learned Monica had died after battling cancer.

“Kayce had such a perfect ending in Yellowstone,” showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TVLine at the time. “His dreams had finally come true. As we were trying to figure out how to tell the next chapter in Kayce’s story, it felt like he really needed to be shaken out of that. Unfortunately, tragedy tends to find Kayce, so something bad was going to happen for him one way or the other. It just sort of played out that it was going to be Monica.”

Hudnut said Monica’s death will continue to drive Kayce, adding, “To me, Monica is really guiding Kayce through this first episode, trying to help him find his new path. And if you actually break it down, Tate is at that rally to honor his mother, and Kayce goes there to protect Tate. So if not for Monica, Kayce never would have been in that position and may not have found this path.”

He concluded: “We really wanted to be respectful of the way that we said goodbye to her. I also didn’t want to step on the ending of Yellowstone, because what they had was a beautiful ending. Unfortunately, real life intervened.”

Asbille, 34, has not yet broken her silence on Monica’s onscreen death. She did grant access for her likeness to be used on the show, which allowed Marshals to show photos of the fictional character on screen.

Marshals airs on CBS Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.