The hits just keep coming to the Dutton family.
The new Taylor Sheridan show, “Marshals,” started with a bang with the shocking reveal that Kayce Dutton’s (Luke Grimes) wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), died offscreen after the events of “Yellowstone.”
“Obviously we can’t just watch this guy have his dream life. There’s no drama,” Grimes, 42, told Entertainment Weekly.
“Something’s gonna have to happen that gets in the way of him having that. Otherwise, why is he gonna take a badge?” he said, referring to how he returns to his military roots and joins a team of US Marshals on “Marshals.”
In the show, she got cancer from environmental toxins dumped on their Native American reservation.
“I was not at all expecting that when I got the call that that’s their idea,” Grimes said, referring to the plot point of killing off Monica.
The former “True Blood” actor added, “And I felt two things simultaneously. One was I was incredibly bummed because Kelsey’s one of my really good friends and the coolest actor I’ve ever worked with. We’re really close, and for a while I couldn’t imagine doing it without her. I was like, ‘That doesn’t even make sense.”
He explained that he later realized that after Kayce loses Monica, “there’s a big story there. A person in that kind of pain could do anything.”
Grimes said, “So at the same time, I did think it was a good idea, even though it was heartbreaking.”
In an interview with TVLine published Sunday, Grimes said that he felt “heartbroken” for both himself and for Asbille, and that he “worked up the courage” to call his former co-star.
“We had a great conversation,” he said. “In true Kelsey fashion, she handled it like a pro and totally understood.”
Airing on Paramount from 2018 to 2025, “Yellowstone” was created by Taylor Sheridan. The hit drama centered on the Duttons, a wealthy ranching family in Montana, including patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his adult children, Kayce, Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Jamie (Wes Bentley). Kayce’s wife, Monica, was on the show through all five seasons.
Sheridan produces “Marshals,” but is more hands off; “SEAL Team” alum Spencer Hudnut is the writer and showrunner for the spinoff.
“Marshals” follows Kayce after the events of “Yellowstone,” when he is a widower who joins a team of US Marshals led by an old military buddy (Logan Marshall Green).
“I actually didn’t think it would be a great idea,” Grimes told The Wrap. “I think it was a mixture of being in the headspace I need to be in for that last episode and then the way the story ended for Kayce, I felt like was pretty perfect.”
Per the outlet, he changed his mind after Sheridan told him that Hudnut was “really smart and he’s got really good ideas. I’m not telling you to do it and I’m not telling you not to do it, but you should definitely talk to him and go from there.”
Grimes and Hudnut have given contradictory statements about whether Monica’s death happened because of a storytelling choice, or because of scheduling, as Hudnut also told The Hollywood Reporter that Asbille was not available to be on “Marshals.”
However, he also made the move sound like a story choice.
“When I first met with Luke, he was like, ‘Kayce’s really happy. Are we going to make a show about a guy who’s really happy?’ We had to shake up his life, to get him off the ranch and into a new position,” Hudnut told TVLine.
There were other potential reasons to write Monica off the show. Fans hated the character for years, and there was controversy over whether the actress really had a Native American background, as she alleged.
Page Six reached out for comment.
“Marshals” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
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