A director from the Yellowstone spinoff Marshals is defending the show’s decision not to elucidate Monica’s shocking offscreen death.
“Because of this it didn’t strike me as a pilot. There was no exposition about Monica’s death within the pilot,” Greg Yaitanes, who directed the series premiere, recently told Collider in regards to the introduction to the CBS show.
The plan was to not get into detail about what happened to Monica (Kelsey Asbille).
“It was exactly what it could be like a 12 months or two after the death of the character,” he continued. “You can be talking in regards to the circumstances around it vs. talking in regards to the thing.”
Yaitanes expressed gratitude to Asbille, adding, “What was really essential was that we had her picture for the protest, and he or she was lovely to provide us permission for that. That was a extremely critical piece to that scene. That’s what I believed that scene was about.”
Paramount Network’s Yellowstone, which aired from 2018 to 2024, introduced Us to Kayce (Luke Grimes) and his wife, Monica, who remained at the middle of the show until the finale. After teaching at a neighborhood school on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation, Monica went on to grow to be 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 brand 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 in March, nonetheless, fans learned Monica died after battling cancer.
“My first query once I got the scripts, as I used to be reading them, was, ‘How are they going to undo Kayce’s completely satisfied ending?’ He really had a fantastic finish at the top of Yellowstone proper,” Yaitanes explained. “And I used to be really moved to see, ‘OK, life has gone in one other direction.’ I almost feel like [episode 2] is basically the pilot, and [the pilot] was the bridge between Yellowstone and Marshals.”
Yaitanes called the second episode “the show you’re going to be watching.”
“Immediately, being a single dad to a son, which was something I could personally connect with, having been a single dad at various times in my life, I felt that the way in which it was handled and the humanity by which it was handled was really beautiful, and I desired to be a part of it,” he shared.
Showrunner Spencer Hudnut has also addressed the choice to kill off Monica.
“Kayce had such an ideal ending in Yellowstone,” he told TVLine in March. “His dreams had finally come true. As we were attempting to determine how you can tell the subsequent chapter in Kayce’s story, it felt like he really needed to be shaken out of that. Unfortunately, tragedy tends to search out Kayce, so something bad was going to occur for him by hook or by crook. It just kind of played out that it was going to be Monica.”
Hudnut said Monica’s death will proceed to drive Kayce, adding, “To me, Monica is basically guiding Kayce through this primary episode, attempting to help him find his latest path. And in case you actually break it down, Tate is at that rally to honor his mother, and Kayce goes there to guard Tate. So if not for Monica, Kayce never would have been in that position and should not have found this path.”
He concluded: “We actually desired to be respectful of the way in which that we said goodbye to her. I also didn’t wish to step on the ending of Yellowstone, because what that they had was a fantastic ending. Unfortunately, real life intervened.”
Marshals airs on CBS Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.