Fans of "Castle" may not be happy to hear the news that the return of the police procedural series for season 8 will be delayed a little longer. But their initial ire will be replaced after ABC announced the police procedural drama will catch up for the lost time by airing an extra episode on a Sunday when it returns in February.
Reports confirmed that instead of Feb, 1, the midseason premiere of "Castle" season 8 episode 9 titled "Tone Death" will air on Feb. 8 to give way to the bonus episode of "The Bachelor" live after-show special. Meanwhile, episode 10 titled "Witness for the Prosecution" will air on Sunday, Feb. 14, the day before episode 11 "Dead Red" airs on its regular schedule on Monday, Feb. 15.
Meanwhile, series showrunners Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter earlier revealed in an interview with Deadline that they are currently in the middle of conceptualizing how to wrap up season 8 in case the network orders a season 9, or if lead actors Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic choose not to return to the show.
"We're definitely getting to a point where we need to figure out what Episodes 21 and 22 are, which is why we are having these discussions now," Hawley revealed during the recently concluded Television Critics Association press panel.
But in case everything gets settled for season 9, the showrunners are set with the idea about the direction of the series after the current season.
"This season was a little bit of a transition, getting Castle into the PI office and setting that world up for him to give him that drive," Hawley explained.
"We wanted to wrap up a lot of the threads of different conspiracies, Beckett's mother's murder, Castle's missing time. We wanted by the end of Season 8 to have gotten through all those — hopefully in a compelling and satisfying way — so Season 9 can be more about the case of the week, going back to the fun of solving the case of the week and not have the luggage of past conspiracies," the series showrunner added.
