It was a little less than two years ago when viewers witnessed the detective drama Castle take a fall both onscreen and behind the scenes, with star Stana Katic shockingly getting fired from the cast. Katic is set to wow audiences again with the mystery thriller Absentia, debuting soon on Amazon, but she definitely hasn't forgotten the controversial circumstances that preceded Castle's cancellation. While any overwhelming rage may have subsided, there are still some lingering questions in her mind.
I'm actually still not clear on the thought process behind the way that it went down. It hurt and it was a harsh ending.
To be clear, Stana Katic isn't marching around with pitchforks and torches while decrying ABC's very existence. She's all set up with an exciting new show that will get darker and more serialized than Castle ever got -- Katic also executive produces on Absentia -- so she's got lots of things to keep her mind busy with other than Castle. But like many of the show's fans, she is still partly confused about why the show's otherwise successful run imploded as its eight season came to a close, and in a way that indeed treated Katic and co-star Tamala Jones rather harshly.
As fans likely remember, Castle was in the back half of Season 8, and while everyone was waiting to hear any kind of renewal news, the show announced that neither Stana Katic nor Tamala Jones would be returning for a ninth season, should one have gotten ordered. It then looked like ABC might make a revamped Season 9 happen after Nathan Fillion's contract was renewed, but the cancellation later came down as expected. Oddly enough, two different endings were filmed for the Castle finale, with a cliffhanger set to wrap things up if Season 9 had happened; but since the show was cancelled didn't, we got to see Castle and Beckett's time-jumping, happier ending. We may never know the real nitty gritty behind what went down, but at least we have Castle's good years to look back upon.
For all the anguish and chaos that came at Castle's end, Stana Katic still has a lot reasons to look back fondly on her years as the ass-kicking Kate Beckett, and she was glad to shift to those happier thoughts when discussing things with EW.
I met so many beautiful people on that project, and we collaborated on something really unique in that it's not every day that you get a show, or a series, that has eight seasons and that it was a hit for the network. It would be a disservice to those people, to the work that we did together, and to my work, which I feel contributed, in part, to the success of the show, to be anything but grateful because, at the end of the day, that was a fantastic platform. It was a formative experience, and we told a love story that I feel moved people, touched people, and I can't be anything but glad that I was a part of something like that. I hope it remains something special in viewers' minds forever.
Hopefully similar situations won't go down for Absentia, which is set to kick off its U.S. run on Amazon on Friday, February 2, at 3:01 a.m. PT. To see when other new and returning shows will be heading to primetime and beyond, head to our 2018 Amazon release schedule, as well as our midseason premiere schedule.
