There was just no way that Kelsey Asbille was going to reprise her role as Monica Dutton in Marshals.
The Kayce Dutton-focused Yellowstone spinoff has already begun airing on CBS. There are five episodes out as of right now, and much of the early storyline 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.
Fortunately for the great minds behind Marshals, they needed a catalyst anyways to get Kayce Dutton back to his violent ways. So Asbille not being available actually didn’t matter at all. In fact, it helped the writers of the series, and provided a driving force for Luke Grimes’ character to move forward. So Marshals went on as a show that explores Kayce’s world without Monica.
Fans first started to realize that Monica wouldn’t be in the series when 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.
But that’s not the only reason that she was left out of the CBS procedural.
According to Matt Belloni over at the What I’m Hearing newsletter, Monica’s absence from Marshals also had to do with avoiding legal issues. There was apparently a need to keep the Kayce Dutton-focused spinoff from simply being a continuation of Yellowstone. Why? Well, that ties back to a deal that was established prior to Paramount+ even existing, and even before Yellowstone was the giant it is today.
Basically, Yellowstone and any continuation of Yellowstone has to stream on Peacock, because that streaming service acquired the streaming rights to Taylor Sheridan’s western drama back in 2020. That’s why the flagship series is still exclusively available to stream on Peacock.
However, that same deal provides wiggle room for Yellowstone spinoffs to stream elsewhere, like on Paramount+. And in an effort to really establish Marshals as a spinoff, and not just as a continuation of the original story, Kelsey Asbille’s Monica was excluded. Even if her schedule would have allowed for her to be a part of the show, the minds behind Marshals probably would have still decided to kill her off… just so Peacock and Paramount+ wouldn’t have anything to bicker about.
It would undoubtedly be confusing for fans if they had to look for the show that airs on CBS on Sunday nights on Peacock, which is owned by NBC. But that’s apparently something that the show’s creators had in mind. Because they did, you can stream Marshals on demand at Paramount+.
New episodes will air every Sunday, then stream on Paramount+, through May 24th.
