'Yellowstone' Character Death Explained in 'Marshals' Spinoff: Why [SPOILER] Was Killed Off

There is now an explanation for the death of a Yellowstone character.

The Marshals spinoff just launched, which revealed that Kelsey Asbille‘s character Monica had died offscreen.

Now, we know why she didn’t make it to the Luke Grimes series.

Keep reading to find out more…

Showrunner Spencer Hudnut clarified the reason in an interview with THR, revealing that the actress was unavailable to appear in the show.

“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?’” he explained.

He also was not part of the conversation with Kelsey about not being part of the series, but said it helped shape the show.

“I can’t really speak to how or why that played out the way it did. But when that happened, it cleared up what that thing was for Kayce. And I think the way we’ve done it, my goal was to not undermine that journey in Yellowstone because they do have [the dream] — she says, ‘This is a dream come true’ at the end of it. They did achieve that. They did get what they finally wanted, and, unfortunately, life just intervened and disrupted everything that Kayce wanted. So that’s where we find him in Marshals.”

He also discussed her manner of death in the series.

“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,” he said.

“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]. Our reservations have really high cancer rates, and it’s because of all the terrible things that have been done to them. So that felt like a way to honor that character, and she is kind of guiding Kayce. Tate is at that rally because of his mother, and Kayce’s there to protect Tate. So without Monica, maybe Kayce doesn’t find that path. So we will continue to explore [that]. I think Kayce is a little bit behind his son in terms of accepting the loss of Monica, and really embracing his grief. We will revisit that period a little bit and also really explore in the first half of the season Kayce’s journey of trying to let go and really accept that she’s gone.”

There’s also an update about another Yellowstone spinoff!