Was Monica Dutton going to be killed off Marshals no matter what?
The Kayce Dutton-focused Yellowstone spinoff has already begun airing on CBS. There are two episodes out as of right now, and much of the storyline has revolved around Luke Grimes’ character moving on after the death of his wife, Monica. Many fans have expressed that they were happy that Kayce’s wife was killed off… and it seems to me like that was going to happen, regardless of if Kelsey Asbille was available or not.
The actress who starred in Yellowstone for the series’ entirety was absent from any promotional material leading up to the Marshals premiere. When Asbille’s name was absent from the cast announcements, any news of the show, and eventually the trailers, it became clear that the show was going to move on without her.
She reportedly couldn’t be a part of the series because of scheduling conflicts.
Showrunner Spencer Hudnut, who also serves as an executive producer and writer for Marshals, told The Hollywood Reporter that he, Sheridan and Paramount entertained a few ideas for the show before they became aware that Kelsey Asbille wouldn’t be available to reprise her Yellowstone role.
That being said, the creators of Marshals knew that there would have to be some sort of catalyst that gets Kayce back to his violent ways, because at the end of Yellowstone, he was very content with his life and was exactly where he wanted to be:
“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.’ 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. It wasn’t like Luke and I were sitting there saying, ‘We should kill Monica.’ 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?’”
So in other words, they weren’t sure how to get Kayce into the U.S. Marshals… and Abille’s unavailability basically made the decision for them. Hudnut went on to explain that they knew they would have to kill her off right away, which would in turn move Kayce’s story forward:
“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.
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. 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).”
My only question about it all? What else would the creators of Marshals have done to justify Kayce Dutton giving up his peaceful life to join the U.S. Marshals?
Maybe they could have killed off Kayce and Monica’s son, Tate (played by Brecken Merrill)? It seems like it would have had to be him or Monica, because otherwise, the continuation of Kayce’s story wouldn’t have made sense – or really been worth it for viewers. All signs point towards it being honestly convenient that Kelsey Asbille wasn’t available, because that really set the story in motion. And even if she was… the minds behind Marshals may have decided to have her briefly star in the show just to kill her off anyways.
Marshals airs on CBS on Sunday nights, and you can stream it on demand at Paramount+. New episodes will stream every Sunday through May 24th.
