The first “Yellowstone” spinoff will have a character from the original show killed off, a move that may make fans jubilant rather than furious.
Contains spoilers for the series premiere of “Marshals,” which aired March 1 on CBS (8 p.m.).
Casey Dutton (Luke Grimes) takes center stage in the new “Yellowstone” spinoff “Marshalls,” airing Sundays on CBS and Paramount+. And the show starts with something shocking. It involves executing his wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille).
So harsh, she doesn’t even have a dramatic death scene on screen. He was already dead when the show started. “Marshals” begins with Casey having a nightmare where he receives a frantic phone call from Monica during a military operation. He wakes up alone in bed.
He then spoke on her grave: “The best part of me died with you.” Although the exact details of her death are not revealed, he vaguely mentions “revenge”.
“Marshalls” follows Casey as he returns to his military roots after the events of “Yellowstone” and joins an elite team of U.S. Marshals led by his old friend Pete Calvin (Logan Marshall-Green).
“Yellowstone,” which aired on Paramount from 2018 to 2024, was a hit cowboy family drama created by Taylor Sheridan. The show was about a powerful ranching family in Montana, including patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his adult children, Casey, Beth (Kelly Reilly), and Jamie (Wes Bentley).
Casey’s wife Monica was a notable supporting character.
Killing her seems cruel, but it was actually a wise move. “Yellowstone” fans hated the moniker for years.
In 2022, Costner asked his followers on Instagram what they wanted from the final season of “Yellowstone.”
“Monica is dead! I’m tired of her,” one outraged fan replied.
A 2022 essay about Pajiba notes that Monica was “more of a nuisance to her husband than a character.”
“I can’t like or even respect Monica,” one critic on Reddit complained, noting that Monica’s actions were “contradictory.” Monica was constantly complaining about Casey’s family background, even though she chose to be with him knowing full well.
“She made the bed so many times and refused to lie there… At some point you have to accept what you have chosen to do with your life,” a fan slammed her.
Another accused her of always being “moody” and playing the “victim”.
“She’s such a nag. I feel bad saying that as a woman, but her complaining was half the reason Casey wasn’t at peace,” another fan pointed out.
Even the viewers who tried to defend her were only half-hearted. “I don’t think she’s bad, she just seems like a half-baked character,” one person pointed out. “She always sighs and then says a platitude and makes the same facial expression. I want to see her stand up for herself or not sulk.”
“I can’t stand her,” declared another.
Well, these fans can rejoice with “Marshals”.
Adding to the controversy surrounding the moniker, the character is Native American, and Asbir claimed she also shared that background, but a 2017 Buzzfeed report found no record of that.
Page Six has reached out to Asbille for comment.
At the time, “Suicide Squad” actor Adam Beach even called for a boycott of “Yellowstone” over the show. “What struck me about this was that there were a lot of Native female actors who needed work,” he told the magazine. “I called out to him right away.”
“Marshalls” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
