‘Yellowstone’ Star Speaks out After His Character Was Killed Off

Yellowstone has lost one of its original cowboys. After Colby Mayfield met a grisly end during Sunday’s episode of the Paramount Network series, actor Denim Richards opened up to The Hollywood Reporter about the “overwhelming” response to his character’s death.

Colby was killed in a classic cowboy accident during the Dec. 1 episode “Counting Coup,” being trampled by a Dutton horse while saving the life of young cowboy-in-training Carter (Finn Little). Even having appeared on Yellowstone since Season 1, which aired in 2018, Richards said he couldn’t have expected how his character’s death would impact fans.

Richards called the response “quite overwhelming in such a positive way,” adding, “I didn’t really ever expect that it would mean so much to so many people. I’m really thankful for that.” Praising the “tremendously amazing fans” who have so much invested in the show and its characters, Richards called it a “beautiful” experience reading all of the comments people have been sending him since Colby’s death.

“Part of the whole reason I ever wanted to get into acting — I’ve been wanting to do this since I was 5 years old — was the ability to change people emotionally,” he continued. “You’re either making them feel happy or sad or indifferent. So as much as, of course, I’m sad to be killed, it feels fulfilling to know that it was impactful. That people actually cared about it. Hopefully that means we did a job well done.”

Having Colby die in such a freak accident is part of show co-creator Taylor Sheridan’s effort to be “intentional about leaning into some of the realities of what riding is and what being a cowboy is,” Richards explained. “Just because you are riding a horse doesn’t mean tragedy doesn’t happen. There’s a saying that everyone is going to fall off a horse — it’s not if, it’s when and how bad. And I think this was another moment where this is something that happens. And it is very simple.”

At the end of the day, Richards said people being “emotionally moved” by Colby’s death is a “testament to the great writing, great atmosphere and great characters” of Yellowstone. He added, “But I definitely appreciate and I’m definitely overwhelmed by the amazing emotional response.”

Asked if he had a future in the larger Sheridan-verse moving forward, Richards teased he had “a few exciting things” he hoped to be able to announce before the end of the year. “Taylor has a lot of things going on and, of course, if there’s an opportunity to be a part of that world, it would be great,” he said. “It would definitely be interesting if I were to do anything in that universe again, what that would look like and how the fans would be able to separate Denim from the Colby.”

Yellowstone airs new episodes Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Paramount Network.