Kelsey Asbille returned to social media for the first time following Monica’s shocking death on the Yellowstone spinoff Marshals.
Asbille, 34, took to Instagram on Saturday, March 7, to share outtakes from her appearance at the Rabanne show at Paris Fashion Week. In the comments section, many Yellowstone fans expressed their disappointment with CBS’ Marshals after Asbille’s character was killed off.
The actress, for her part, has not yet broken her silence after Monica’s death. She has also kept a low profile on social media, sharing only one post since she celebrated the Yellowstone finale in December 2024.
“One episode left,” Asbille wrote via Instagram alongside a photo of herself with costar Luke Grimes. “To share the screen with Luke over these past 7 years was such a dream.”
Paramount Network’s Yellowstone, which aired from 2018 to 2024, introduced Us to Kayce (Grimes) and Monica, who remained at the center of the show until the finale. After teaching 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 were still together — before Marshals began.
When the series premiered on March 1, however, fans learned Monica died after battling cancer.
“The original conversation was that it has to be something [that happens to Kayce in the series premiere]. There was the thought of, ‘Maybe we find him and he’s just bored because he was protecting his family and was a Navy SEAL, so then actually a calm life is not for him, which is a path,’” Marshals showrunner Spencer Hudnut told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month about the motivation behind the new spinoff. “But probably not a satisfying enough path for Kayce. Then, truthfully, as we were trying to figure it out, Monica was not one of the ingredients that was available to me.”
Yellowstone has expanded with several spinoffs — but some of the shows have been going through extreme offscreen production delays. Taylor Sheridan‘s hit show, which premiered in 2018, introduced viewers to the fictional Dutton family, who own the largest ranch in Montana. It became an instant hit for the Paramount Network, which inspired prequels including […]
Hudnut clarified that he didn’t speak with Asbille before it was decided that Monica would be written off, adding, “No, I wasn’t part of any of that, so 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.”
He continued: “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.”
Hudnut also noted that Asbille was “unavailable for the new series,” adding, “When that happened, it cleared up what that thing was for Kayce [that would drive him].”
“It wasn’t like Luke and I were sitting there saying, ‘We should kill Monica,’” he continued. “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?’”
Marshals airs on CBS Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
