‘Castle’ Season 9 Cancelled Or Renewed: Showrunners Accept Season 8 May Be Show’s Last

ABC has recently renewed 15 series, including Shondaland dramas Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away with Murder, sitcoms Modern Family, Black-ish, and The Middle, and reality shows Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor. The fate of Castle Season 9, however, remains up in the air. Will the Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion drama be renewed or cancelled?

According to Carter Matt, ABC may have been holding back on renewing Castle for Season 9 following its less-than-stellar ratings. The publication also pointed out that the ABC executives may still be negotiating with the show’s lead stars, thus delaying the announcement.

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Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Castle executive producer Alexi Hawley hinted that Season 8 may eventually end with a cliffhanger. This, however, does not mean that they were already banking on the show’s renewal. Hawley explained that they only wanted to reveal more information about LokSat, which could end up either surprising or frustrating the viewers even more.

“Our hope is to get to a place where they do get to confront LokSat and get something satisfying. It would be great to have something of a cliffhanger.”

In a separate interview with TV Line back in December, Hawley explained that networks tend to stretch the announcement of whether to cancel or renew the show until its very late. Because of this, the Castle executive producer revealed that they planned on just doing a satisfying Season 8 finale that fans will appreciate. He added that they are working on an exciting ending to wrap up the show.

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While he, along with the cast and crew of Castle, believes that the show can go on for Season 9, he shared that they wrote the Season 8 finale thinking that it will be their last episode.

“We hope to come back for Season 9, but we have to act as if [we might not].”

In January, then-ABC president Paul Lee said at the TCA panel that if it were to him, Castle will be renewed and go on for several years, reported Deadline. In spite of the show’s decline in ratings, Lee believed that it will eventually bounce back and capture the audience’s attention once again.

One of the most prevalent comments from Castle fans is of the show’s uninteresting and repetitive storyline. Lee, however, remained optimistic that the writers will be able to remedy that situation.

“There are lots of good ideas for that. I don’t want to give a glimpse to what those ideas might be, but I’m feeling optimistic that we’ve got some good ideas.”

When Paul Lee stepped down as ABC president, some Castle fans took this as a bad sign. With Stana Katic and Nathan Fillion both seemingly less than enthusiastic in returning for Season 9, it appeared like the show may just be done for good.

According to TV by the Numbers, based on the performance of the recent episodes of Castle Season 8 alone, the series is “likely to be cancelled” by May 2016. The author pointed out that since its return, Castle has yet to score a 1.2 same-day rating. While the series used to bring in dependable ratings for the network, it seems like the audience was slowly losing interest in the whole Castle and Beckett story.

The publication further pointed out that ABC should “do the show and itself a solid” by announcing its cancellation sooner rather than later.

“No eight-year-old network drama is cheap, and this show would likely get more expensive with whatever it took to get its two leads back for a ninth season.”

Do you think Castle deserves to be cancelled or renewed? Tell us in the comments below.

Castle Season 8 airs Mondays on ABC.

[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]