21 Most Stunning ‘Yellowstone’ Franchise Deaths, Ranked

Many of the Yellowstone franchise's most stunning deaths feature major characters, but No. 1 on this list only appeared in a single episode.

• The Yellowstone franchise also includes prequels 1883 and 1923.
• Dutton Ranch and Marshals are two active shows carrying on the family tradition, and both are featured here.
• Season 2 of Marshals begins Oct. 4. Season 2 of Dutton Ranch is thought to begin in 2027.

Character importance and predictability helped shape this list. If nobody really cared about a character or they only appeared for a few moments, we didn't bother.

Related: Yellowstone: Dutton Family Tree Updated After 1923 Season 2

That said, villains aren't prohibited from ranking high. For example, find an all-time great villain at No. 3. We knew this person would die, but it was still a stunner.

Yellowstone's Most Shocking Death — Who's No. 1?

Heroes are favored, however: John Dutton (all four of them), Elsa Dutton and Jack Dutton were all killed during their respective series. So too were Dutton family friends like Sheriff Haskell and Colby Mayfield. If this was a list of the saddest deaths, the one from Ep. 7 of 1923 might be No. 1, but tears collected played no bearing on how we ranked them.

This shouldn't need to be said, but the following list includes several major spoilers about deaths from one season of 1883, two seasons of 1923 and five seasons of Yellowstone.

Deaths will surely mount on the two active Yellowstone franchise shows and any truly surprising moments will be added here. We've got our eye on Jimmy Hurdstrom, who is set to move back to Montana to join Kayce Dutton in East Camp.

What happened to his wife Emily?

This franchise isn't afraid to kill people off screen (four of the 21 deaths found below never made television) so we're not optimistic.