Marshals shocked Yellowstone fans when it revealed the fate of Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille), Kayce Dutton’s (Luke Grimes) wife in Taylor Sheridan‘s hit series. Monica died of cancer between the events of the Yellowstone series finale the Marshals series premiere. Now, Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser tell us that Dutton Ranch takes place after Monica’s death as well, and they hope to address her passing in Season 2.
The Dutton Ranch Season 1 finale came out on Friday, July 3, on Paramount+, and it airs on July 3 at 8/7c on Paramount Network. In Season 1, as Beth and Rip fight to build a future together — far from the ghosts of Montana — they collide with brutal new realities and a ruthless rival ranch that will stop at nothing to protect its empire. In South Texas, blood runs deeper, forgiveness is fleeting, and the cost of survival might just be your soul. The spinoff was renewed for Season 2 on June 24.
Dutton Ranch Episode 1 revealed the natural disaster that prompted Beth and Rip’s move from Montana to Rio Paloma, Texas, with their adopted son, Carter (Finn Little). A lightning strike caused a devastating fire that destroyed their new ranch, so they moved to Texas after finding a legacy ranch to buy. Reilly and Hauser tell TV Insider that this happened after Monica’s death.
“I think that happened before our show started in a story world,” Reilly says. “I imagine Beth and Rip had gone to Monica’s [funeral], that there has been some connection and our story started after that.”
Because of the timing of when the two shows were written and filmed, Monica’s death couldn’t be worked into the plot of Dutton Ranch Season 1, “but I would absolutely imagine that there’ll be some checking in on her brother and we just didn’t see it this year,” Reilly notes.
“I think it’s something that was a missed opportunity quite honestly,” she continues, “but we’re all both trying to start up these big shows. And I think we can see where there are gaps and we see where things needed to be fixed. And that’s what you get the opportunity to do in a Season 2. You get to go back and go, OK, we can do this one differently. We can make this better. We can take care of that. And I think we already have our list of things in all our individual minds: Christina Voros, Taylor Sheridan, our producers, our new showrunner [Benjamin Cavell]. So I’m looking forward to getting into that, and so we can make the best show we can.”
Reilly and Hauser have both previously expressed interest in working with Grimes again now that they’re all starring in their own Yellowstone spinoffs. Hauser tells TV Insider that addressing Monica’s death in Dutton Ranch is of interest, as is the chance to show a new side of Rip’s relationship with his brother-in-law.
“It’d be fun to see actually Kayce and Rip get along,” Hauser says, “have a scene where they’re actually happy together. I would absolutely love to see that and see it written and actually have some fun with him in some capacity.”
Dutton Ranch also stars Annette Bening, Ed Harris, Juan Pablo Raba, Jai Courtney, Natalie Alyn Lind, J.R. Villarreal, Marc Menchaca, and more.
