‘Castle’ Will Continue, But Without Nathan Fillion And Stana Katic?

Castle has just enjoyed a measure of success at this year’s People’s Choice Awards with Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic receiving well deserved recognition, even though ratings have dipped for the ABC crime drama. This unusual combination of failure and success has left some wondering what is to become of Castle, but ABC already has a good idea of where they would like to go with the series. They just don’t seem to be on as sure footing with the show’s stars.

Castle Takes Some Wins At The People’s Choice Awards

Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic took home the People’s Choice Awards for Favorite TV Crime Drama Actor and Actress, which may have come as a surprise to fans of some of the other nominees, but not to Castle fans. Of the past four years, Fillion has taken the prize home from the People’s Choice Awards three times. This year, the Castle actor beat out Jim Caviezel, LL Cool J, Mark Harmon, and Shemar Moore for the award.

Nathan’s counterpart, Stana, has also had three consecutive wins for her portrayal of Kate Beckett, who has been promoted from N.Y.C. homicide detective to captain. Ms. Katic has defeated Emily Deschanel, Lucy Liu, Mariska Hargitay, and Pauley Perrette for her award.

The Future Of Castle May Or May Not Include Nathan And Stana

The news of the People’s Choice wins seems to have influenced ABC in their decision to renew Castle for future seasons. On the other hand, it might have been their plan all along in spite of the ratings drop, but that seems unlikely, considering how much talk there had been of canceling the series prior to the People’s Choice Awards. In either case, it sounds as though ABC executives are still waiting to hear from Castle‘s stars.

Paul Lee, speaking for ABC, said that while the network plans to continue running the show with or without the stars, they’re still waiting to hear if Fillion and Katic are going to re-sign their contracts, before making any definitive plans.

“We’d love for Castle to keep going for many years to come. There are a lot of conversations going on on how to do that,” Lee said. “I don’t want to give a glimpse as to where they go, but I’m feeling optimistic that we’ve got some good ideas.”

It sounds as though ABC has a contingency plan for Castle that would involve either a spinoff, or possibly refocusing the current show on other characters.

It seems unlikely that Fillion would leave a series, while it’s still enjoying a good measure of success, but he does have a side project going with former Firefly co-star Alan Tudyk. It started out with Con Man, a crowd funded parody about two actors (Fillion and Tudyk) from a canceled sci-fi series, who later find success traveling the convention circuit.

Now, the duo are launching a comic book series called Spectrum, which will tell the story that launched the comic book within the story.

“A comic book is the best way to tell the story that ignited that fandom. It’s the serious sci-fi story, inside the comedic story, told inside a comic book that is sold inside comic book stores. Every good Con Man needs a comic,” says Tudyk, describing the plot as well as it really can be told.

Running a comic book series is a deep commitment, so the question remains: Will Nathan Fillion stay with Castle, or will he devote his time to this new endeavor? We may find out sooner than expected, if plans to begin production on new episodes stay on track.

Castle returns with the rest of season 8 on February 1 on ABC.

[Featured image by ABC]