Monica’s shocking death doesn’t mean Kelsey Asbille can’t make an appearance on Yellowstone‘s Marshals spinoff.
“Kelsey was so generous allowing us to use her image in the first episode,” showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TVLine following the Sunday, March 1, premiere of Marshals. “We wouldn’t have done that without her permission.”
Hudnut noted that it’s possible Asbille, 34, could reprise her role in hallucination or flashback form.
“I don’t want to guarantee anything, but it’s definitely not off the table,” Hudnut hinted. “I think it would be really satisfying to see them back together. I’ve worked on another show where we may have brought back a deceased spouse [such as S.W.A.T].”
During Marshals’ first episode, Kayce (Luke Grimes) was seen visiting the grave of his wife, Monica. “The best part of me died with you,” Kayce told Monica after revealing her battle with cancer. “You always told me to fight for the life I want, but the life I wanted was with you. I’m trying to find a new path, a new beginning for me and [our son] Tate.”
While reflecting on the spinoff’s story line, Hudnut defended the decision to kill off Monica.
“Kayce had such a perfect ending in Yellowstone,” he explained. “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.”
Paramount Network’s Yellowstone, which aired from 2018 to 2024, introduced Us to Kayce 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.
CBS’ new series, meanwhile, follows Kayce as he leaves “ranching life behind to join an elite unit” of the U.S. Marshals while “combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana, where he and his teammates must balance family, duty and the high psychological cost that comes with serving as the last line of defense in the region’s war on violence.”
Grimes, 42, weighed in on the changes that took place in his spinoff, telling TVInsider, “I was heartbroken for myself and for [Kelsey]. It felt like, ‘I don’t even know what that would look like doing it without her, what that would feel like.’ Kelsey’s become one of my best friends. She’s the coolest actor I’ve ever worked with. She’s down to earth, sweet and kind to every other actor and the crew.”
The actor revealed how he told his former onscreen love interest about Monica’s fate.
“I worked up the courage to call. I didn’t know how she was going to feel about it. I had to see how she was doing. We had a great conversation,” he added. “In true Kelsey fashion, she handled it like a pro and totally understood. She’s going to do just fine. She is so talented, gorgeous and awesome. She’s going to work. That’s not an issue.”
Marshals airs on CBS Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
