The American crime drama TV series “Castle” had its Season 8 finale on ABC on May 16 and it had its rather forced happy ending.
Prior to the concluding Season 8 episode of “Castle,” there have been reports that the TV series was renewed by the network for a Season 9 but that it shall no longer have its female lead star in Stana Katic, who played Kate Beckett in the series right from the start.
Reports back then were saying that the actress decided not to renew her contract with the show along with another actress Tamala Jones, who is also a regular cast member of “Castle.”
However, some five days before the airing of the final Season 8 episode of “Castle,” the network has told the producers that they are reconsidering their decision to extend the TV series to a ninth season.
As a result, the executive producers had to scramble to come up with an improvised episode to show that “Castle” would have a happy ending. So keen viewers would have noticed that after the LokSat mystery was solved during the Season 8 finale episode, there was a time jump of seven years to show that Rick Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, and Kate Beckett, were already enjoying their happily ever after as a married couple along with their three kids.
Can no longer be undone
Shortly after the Season 8 finale, there came reports that a Season 9 is once again being reconsidered by ABC for possible airing in the fall of this year.
However, with the way the executive producers forced the happy ending on Rick and Kate, it is no longer possible to undo what was already done.
The rumors about the decision of the network to have a Season 9 for “Castle” came about because Fillion and the other stars of the TV series including Molly Quinn, Toks Olagundoye, Susan Sullivan, Seamus Dever, and Jon Huertas all have one year left on their respective contracts.
The producers would have bought out their contracts just to agree to the network to end the show after Season 8 instead of the earlier pronounced final ninth season.
It has been reported that all the six cast members were expected to return to the TV series and that most fans of “Castle” were already excited to catch their favorite characters on their favorite show.
Unfortunately, there was no truth to those rumors as “Castle” remains canceled to this day and there are no efforts to bring about the rescue of the show from cancellation from any other network or streaming service.
Still confident
Although the rumored revival of the already-cancelled “Castle” for Season 9 were mere speculations, some fans were confident that there was really a good chance that the TV series might see the light of day.
As a matter of fact, series executive producers Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter have previously stated that they have filmed an alternate version of the Season 8 finale of “Castle” in the event that the show gets renewed for Season 9.
The showrunners revealed in an interview that the alternate “Castle” Season 8 ending featured Rick Castle, together with his family and colleagues, already thinking that Kate Beckett is dead when in truth, she is still not.
There are also sources saying that the real reason why Katic decided to leave the show after its Season 8 finale because she and Fillion are having some kind of dispute. This became apparent when the actress was recently seen crying in her dressing room supposedly due to the harsh treatment of her by Fillion.
In fact, there are reports saying that Katic and Fillion had undergone counseling just to patch their differences professionally.