Castle

ABC’s Castle got a more abrupt ending than cast and crew were necessarily expecting, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine may give Nathan Fillion a little closure. The former Firefly star will guest star on the cop comedy’s fourth season in a role that should sound familiar to Richard Castle readers.

The series finale of ABC’s Castle still feels dizzyingly abrupt, given the frantic race for a ninth season amid multiple firings, and a tacked-on conclusion to the Season 8 cliffhanger finale. Longtime fans perhaps hoped the final season DVD might present the cliffhanger ending as originally designed, but producers have curiously declined to include it.

ABC has already lost one fan-favorite today, but the latest affords an even bigger shock. Following a dramatic exit for co-lead Stana Katic, and weeks of deal-making to keep the remaining cast for Season 9, ABC has officially opted to cancel Castle for good after the eighth season finale.

A few weeks back, Castle fans were agape at the thought of a ninth season without series star Stana Katic, as well the circus and rumors and cast reactions that flew since. Nathan Fillion hadn’t signed for Season 9 at the time, but has now reportedly been secured, while ABC is set to make a decision on the series before the weekend.

Like all network procedurals, it takes a few extra stretches to keep stars and quality consistent through the later seasons, something ABC’s Castle has been on the edge of for years. Now, Stana Katic has apparently been thrown off that edge, as a prospective Season 9 will move forward without Beckett, or Katic’s approval.

A little inside-baseball saw ABC recently shifting leadership from former boss Paul Lee to Channing Dungey, and as such, little time was wasted issuing 15 renewals across the network. Not only will the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. return for a fourth season, so too will everything from black-ish to Quantico to Dancing With the Stars will get additional runs. That said, who was left off of the list?

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has made some solid Season 3 casting changes to date, but speaking of dates, ABC has officially granted one to Coulson and his team. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will officially return in late September, as revealed by ABC’s fall 2015 lineup.

ABC is the latest of the broadcast networks to throw out their 2015-2016 schedules, and while few major upsets are in store, the network still had some surprising news. Will Castle or Grey’s Anatomy go on beyond their next seasons? And which of the freshman series will get an unexpected reboot?

The onslaught of Upfronts are officially upon us for 2015, and ABC got the major network ball rolling with good news for Agent Carter, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Muppets. There’s plenty good and bad to go around however, as while Once Upon a Time, Fresh Off the Boat and the Shondaland series have been renewed, Forever and others won’t live to see additional seasons.

It’s hard to believe that Nathan Fillion has been solving mysteries through seven seasons of ABC’s Castle already, but those in hope of an eighth year might have good news and bad. Nathan Fillion's literary crime-solver will definitively return for Season 8, but neither Stana Katic, or the ABC drama’s showrunner, creator and producer are confirmed to keep with Castle.