After winning over TV audiences everywhere for seven years on ABC's Castle, actress Stana Katic seemed immediately destined to find a new and exciting series to work on. Indeed, she found it in the dramatic thriller Absentia, which has actually been on the market for months now, having already landed most of its international homes. Nothing had ever been locked down for a U.S. release, until today, that is. Amazon thankfully stepped in and snagged the rights to be Absentia's exclusive domestic home.
With Amazon's massive U.S. subscriber base as its potential future audience, Absentia stars Stana Katic as FBI agent Emily Byrne, who goes missing while trying to take down one of Boston's most notorious serial killers. Declared dead, Emily is eventually found six years after first disappearing, though barely alive and lacking any and all memories about the entire time she'd been missing. She returns to a completely restructured existence, as her husband Nick (Patrick Heusinger) has gotten remarried and is raising their son with another woman. Drama!
Not that Nick will be taking things breezily. He now has to face head-on all the guilt and remorse he went through after he stopped looking for Emily. And things take an even crazier turn when Emily ends up becoming the prime suspect in a new series of violent murders. At this point, Emily goes on the run, hoping to find a way to prove her innocence while also unlocking the truth behind her lost years. This doesn't sound like the kind of case that Nathan Fillion's Richard Castle could solve in a 42-minute episode.
It was just over a year ago when Stana Katic first signed on to join Absentia, which is produced by Sony Picture Television's International Networks and Masha Productions. And it was around 18 months ago that ABC and Castle made the shocking decision to take Katic out of the show, which kicked up some controversial dust and possibly played a role in the show being cancelled outright. We're pumped that the actress chose a follow-up project that looks nothing like her former show, and will hopefully give audiences a juicy mystery to figure out over the course of that first season. You can check out a trailer for Absentia below.
Created by Gaia Violo and Matt Cirulnick, Absentia has been quite popular around the world in countries where it has already debuted, such as Spain, Romania and Portugal (among others). It'll be interesting to see how reactions to this new series compare to those of Castle's final season. We'll find out at some point in 2018, which is when Absentia will be premiering on Amazon, which also recently locked into doing a Lord of the Rings show.
To see when other new shows will be premiering in the rest of 2017, head over to our fall TV premiere schedule. And for all the shows that won't be seen again, head to our cancellation rundown.
