As Yellowstone’s Marshals spinoff prepares to show Kayce moving on after wife Monica’s death, Luke Grimes knows not everyone will be pleased with the development.
“[Showrunner] Spencer [Hudnut] and I have talked about how we do that in the way that the audience allows it and doesn’t get upset by it,” Grimes, 42, told Entertainment Weekly on Thursday, September 10.
Grimes noted that the writers approached it “slowly and cautiously” for Kayce, adding, “Some time has passed, and I think we have to put Kayce in some situations where you don’t blame him for wanting to open up that way.”
With Kayce still grieving, there will be a larger conversation about him possibly removing his wedding ring.
“Is that a moment or is it not? Does it just go away?” Grimes added. “It’s hard because you do want to honor it, even though it’s a fictional character.”
He continued: “[Playing Kayce …] it starts to kind of feel like a real person. It’s very confusing sometimes. He’s been in my life for a very long time. I want him to be happy.”
Yellowstone, which aired from 2018 to 2024, introduced Us to Kayce and his wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), who remained at the center of the show until the series finale.
After teaching at a local school on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation, Monica became a professor at Montana State University while navigating life with Kayce, who moved them back to the Yellowstone Ranch following his tension with dad John (Kevin Costner).
Kayce and Monica ended the show alive — and 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,” 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, 35, has not yet broken her silence on Monica’s death. She did grant access for her likeness to be used on the show, which allowed Marshals to include photos of the fictional character on screen.
Marshals returns to CBS Sunday, October 4, at 8:30 p.m. ET before streaming the next day o
