The upcoming new season for “Castle” will be threading on uncharted waters since it was announced earlier that the series will be moving on without its captain on Season 8. Penny Johnson Jerald, the actress portraying Captain Victoria Gates since 2011, has announced that she will no longer be a part of the new season of the series.
The 54-year-old actress took to Twitter to reach to her fans recently and said that she was both surprised and saddened to learn that she will no longer be a part of the “Castle” family. She thanked her fans for their love and support. From the way her social media post was made, it looks like Penny did not know that she is going to be axed from the show.
After Penny’s announcement on Twitter, fans began showing their disappointment and dismay of the bad news. Many have said that they were disappointed and sad because they believe that Captain Victoria plays a very important role in the story. Others have even pointed out that nobody can replace Jerald in this role as she is the only one who has that distinct way of calling out Mr. Castle.
Others are persistent that this is a bad move for the production and hoped that they would reconsider their decision. The fans pointed out that the love-hate relationship of Mr. Castle and Captain Victoria brings the spice to the show.
Unfortunately, it seemed like the show has been firm on its decision. Zap2it has asked for a response from the show asking them why they had suddenly decided to cut off Jerald but the producers have not responded. The show is expected to have a lot of changes since it was sent on a new leadership under co-showrunners Alexu Hawley and Terence Paul Winter.
Coming back or not
On the other hand, reports suggest that fans and even the production team is under deep thoughts on whether they would like to bring back Stana Katic as Beckett or not. If she comes back, the biggest conflict for Beckett’s character is if she would make a political run or not. During the series finale of Season 7, there was a teaser about this story. Lance Reddick told her while she was still trying for a promotion in NYPD, that she could be destined for a higher ground—thus the political role.
Katic’s character could be a great fit for a politician. She is determined, she has a strong-voice and will-oriented. However, there is still no guarantee she would take on this path on the next season.
According to Cartermatt, Beckett would not quit NYPD right away. She has been very passionate about her job and it is hard to leave it. Even though a political role would be best for her, she still knows that NYPD has defined a great part of her.
So far, it is still a good thing for Beckett to avoid politics. First of all, the show is not “House of Cards,” and deviating from the original storyline could be a great distraction. They could lose the fans because of the different direction they would be going if Beckett enters politics.