The Most Shocking ‘Yellowstone’ Franchise Deaths, Ranked

Many of the Yellowstone franchise’s most stunning deaths feature minor characters. In fact, No. 1 on this list only appeared in a single episode.

Yellowstone prequel 1883 did the same thing in 2021. This Tim McGraw-led show adds six stunning deaths to our tally, behind the OG series (eight).

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

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.

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.

Heroes are favored, however: John Dutton (both of ’em), 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. The next spinoff looks to be a show called Madison, but the next prequel may very well be 1944.

As that show begins, we’ll adjust this list as needed.

READ MORE: The Most Shocking Horror Deaths Ever