This Monday at 10/9c, Castle resumes its uninterrupted final run of episodes with the “gift” of a flashback-filled trip down memory lane. But beyond that don’t-call-it-a-clip-show — and in light of the events of last episode (which was supposed to air first) — the road ahead for Rick and Kate looks a bit bumpy. Series creator Andrew W. Marlowe spoke with TVLine about putting the popular pairing to the test, culminating in a top-secret finale where they either pass… or fail.

TVLINE | What story were you wanting to tell with these last few episodes, leading into the season finale?
The last couple episodes are about how [Rick and Kate] have been in a relationship for about a year now, and that’s about the time people start asking questions, about where things stand. They’ve been living in this fun bubble, but there comes a time where real life intrudes and things come in from the outside and force the characters to ask questions about where they’re going. By the time we get to “The Human Factor” (airing May 6), those questions will start aiming us towards some complications that come in our final episode, challenges to the relationship that both characters are going to have to confront.

TVLINE | With “The Squab & the Quail” airing ahead of schedule last week, what did viewers miss out on not having seen “Still” first?
Not too much – and I will let them discover that. But there are a couple of really important relationship moments and serious moments in “Still.” As you know, that episode, the 24th episode, was added very late in the game, so we took a very particular point of view on how we were going to get it done. And it turned out, I think, in spectacular fashion. It’s a great gift to our loyal fans. There are a couple of moments in there that they have to look forward to, that they’ll really enjoy.

TVLINE | Would you be loath to call it a “clip show”?
I would. We certainly have clips in it, but…. When I realized we only had a couple of days to shoot it and we’d have to fill it out with clips, I set out to make the best “clip show” that television has seen, and I think our team pulled it off. It’s a great episode, because we use the clips to forward the storytelling. It is a great trip down memory lane, but we also have some high stakes and interesting stuff going on in the main story.

TVLINE | Circling back to “Squab” for a minute: In your mind, what all informed Kate’s ever-so-slightly wishy-washy response to Erik Vaughn asking about her relationship status?
Well, I think what has dawned on her is [she and Rick] haven’t really talked about it. Does Castle think the relationship is serious? Does she think it’s serious, where they’re headed? They’ve been in it for a year and they seem to be having a really good time and having good moments, but…. This a guy who’s been married twice, she’s not getting any younger, she’s thinking about her future… and does her future include him? And is that part of his plan?

It’s only human to ask those questions at this point. I don’t think it signals that there’s anything “wrong” with the Castle/Beckett relationship, but I do think that she wonders what comes next — and as we get towards the end of the season, Castle himself is going to wonder what comes next. As a guy, he is somebody who doesn’t rush into commitment if things are working well the way they are. But Kate has a career and she’s got her next steps to think about. When an Internet billionaire is making a play for you, if she was single, I think we know what she would have done in [last week’s] situation. It speaks to her level of commitment to Castle [that she pushed Vaughn away], but it also speaks to a desire to know what happens next.

TVLINE | Aside from snipping symbolic videogame cords and offering candlelit massages, will we see other instances of Castle trying to course-correct?
As we head into “The Human Factor,” there are other, more professional issues that start to arise for the Beckett character, that begin to complicate things. We have that to look forward to as we come to our season finale, which is an emotional season finale. But instead of going into Beckett’s mother’s mythology like we have the last two seasons, and done something operatic, I wanted to really focus on where Castle and Beckett were. So we have a great case but it kind of takes a back seat to wrestling with the bigger life issues that both of them are in the midst of.

TVLINE | “Human Factor” guest star Carlos Bernard (24), like Ioan Gruffudd, is not an unattractive man. Does his character serve a purpose similar to Erik Vaughn?
No, he serves a different purpose. He’s a complicated character, but he opens Beckett’s eyes to a greater world out there.

TVLINE | Talk about the title of this season’s finale, “Watershed.”
Every so often in life you face a watershed moment, and I have to give props to [producer-wife] Terri Miller for coming up with the title. It was absolutely perfect — especially since in our A-case we find a body in a water tank. It was a great title that spoke to both the personal and the professional aspect of the storytelling.

TVLINE | Are you leaving viewers with a cliffhanger?
There is a bit of a cliffhanger, yeah. It’s an emotional cliffhanger that I think will propel us into some great, complicated, interesting storytelling as we head into next season — assuming the TV gods are kind and grant us one.

TVLINE | [Grey’s Anatomy creator] Shonda Rhimes is never shy about saying she scrapped a finale plan late in the game and reworked it from scratch. When did it become clear to you how you wanted to end Season 5?
Every season, you have a great map but it’s like driving through fog– the closer you get, the clearer it gets. So about seven or eight episodes out, I knew, ballpark, where I wanted to land. And part of it was informed by some really big storytelling we had in the spring, dealing with [Senator] Bracken, the two-parter [about Alexis’ kidnapping], what we’re doing in “Still”…. And I wanted a quieter, more emotional finale, without the fireworks. But you do go back and forth. We were fortunate that [the May 13 finale] times out where it’s about that period of time where people start asking the hard questions about relationships, and in the finale something comes out of left field that both characters have to wrestle with, something that would be a challenge to any relationship. Having clarity seven or eight episodes out was very helpful, and we feel pretty good about where we landed.

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After a week off, CASTLE is back this Monday with a brand new episode! And since we’re about to enter into the final five episodes of the season, I asked CASTLE creator Andrew Marlowe what he could tease about the last few hours of season 5…

The upcoming cases:

Castle and Beckett have come across all sorts of unfathomable things in their four-plus years together, but Monday’s episode, “The Fast and the Furriest,” could put them in the path of their craziest foe yet.

“We have a really fun episode where in a traditional CASTLE way it looks like Bigfoot might be our killer,” Marlowe previewed about the hour. “So that’s our chance to take a look at the genre and the supernatural stuff out there in a fun, yet credible way.”

The following week (April 22nd) is the newly ordered bonus hour, “Still,” which Marlowe has deemed an “an emotionally charged episode” where Beckett accidentally triggers a pressure-sensitive bomb while investigating a case. So it’s a bit understandable that the April 29th episode, “The Squab and the Quail,” is a little bit lighter in tone.

“Beckett is roped into protecting a Steve Jobs/Elon Musk-type character [played by RINGER's Ioan Gruffudd], who is wealthy, innovation, and handsome,” Marlowe teased. “He’s sort of the uber Castle. And of course, this sets Castle off and makes him insanely jealous. It’s really fun to watch how Castle responds to this now that they’re a couple. It would be as if Beckett had to protect George Clooney, in terms of Castle’s reaction.”

But it won’t be all fun and games as the season winds down: one of the final hours of the season will deal with the topic of drones.

“We’re jumping into the cultural conversation about drones and the deployment of drones on U.S. soil,” Marlowe shared. “It’s CASTLE, so we’re going to take our own unique perspective.”

And while Esposito has an established military background, Marlowe said the hour wouldn’t necessarily be used to shed more light on Espo’s history, but “he’ll certainly have a point of view” about the case.

The supporting characters:

After getting several episodes devoted to exploring the backstories of Esposito and Ryan over the years, the only character that has been around since day one who is still a pretty big question mark is Lanie. And while fans may be intrigued about her history, there’s no timetable yet for when the show will dive deeper into that particular story.

“Maybe,” Marlowe replied, when I asked if we could see a Lanie-centric episode next year. “It’s been complicated to work out, to find the right way to expose her backstory.”

In the meantime, Lanie will be kept busy with her on-again relationship with Esposito.

“They’re downplaying it,” Marlowe explained. “I think neither one of them wants to expose too much because they hit some rocks afterwards, so they’re trying to figure out their level of investment.”

Speaking of romance, Gates has seemingly missed a whole bunch of clues indicating that Castle and Beckett’s relationship has evolved from partners to romantic over the season, and Marlowe teased that what Gates does — or doesn’t — know about Castle and Beckett’s relationship will be revealed soon: “It’s something we’re going to confront before the end of the season.”

The Castle family:

Alexis has been heavily involved in quite a few episodes in 2013 — her mother’s return, the kidnapping, the 100th episode surprise birthday party — and the last arc will feature a bit of Castle’s daughter in a more grounded setting.

“We’ll see a little more of her by the end of the year,” Marlowe said. “It’s her stuff at the loft and tied in with her dad and the relationship with Beckett.”

And, of course, viewers did just meet Castle’s father for the first time. But given that his father is played by James Brolin, I asked Marlowe if there was any concern that having such a huge name guest star would impact the show’s ability to get him to return for follow up episodes.

“I hope not,” Marlowe said. “Castle’s father has such a strong mythology in the show, that I think if you start seeing him too often, it diminishes who he is. So being a little bit mysterious is good for us. But I’d love to bring him back under the right circumstances.”

Source: here

How Nathan Fillion’s geek cred, Stana Katic’s eye for a good haircut and passionate fans added up to staying power for the Monday-night stalwart.

This story first appeared in the April 5 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Castle began on shaky ground. Like many shows developed right before the writers strike, the ABC series — revolving around the crime-solving duo of mystery novelist Richard Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, and NYPD detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) — hit a major wall during the 2007-08 lull. Uncertainty put Castle, created by screenwriter Andrew Marlowe (Hollow Man, Air Force One), on the network’s shelf. It wasn’t until after the strike that it received a second round of support, becoming one of ABC’s last pilot orders that year and earning a series greenlight.

As Castle readies for its 100th episode, an homage to Alfred Hitchcock‘s Rear Window airing April 1, it continues to build on its DNA: Four tie-in novels have sold more than 1.5 million copies, including a No. 1 best-seller on The New York Times paperback mass-market list and two peaking in the top 10, plus a new book due in May; and in 2012, Marvel, a sibling subsidiary of Disney, along with ABC Studios released a Castle graphic novel. “Castle‘s DNA with a murder-mystery novelist as the lead character makes it very easy and satisfying to create the novelizations,” says Barry Jossen, executive vp studio creative and production at ABC Entertainment Group. “These other pieces of Castle fit comfortably with the TV show and deliver an enhanced experience and extra engagement to fans between viewings. At its best, a TV show becomes a mothership franchise and a product line.”

Geek cred from Fillion, 42, having starred in Joss Whedon‘s cult series Firefly, has led to an enviable social-media presence thanks in part to the actor’s nearly 1.7 million Twitter followers. “He brought those Firefly fans with him, and they showed up,” credits Marlowe. Although Castle began modestly as a midseason replacement in 2009, it since has stood tall on Mondays (averaging nearly 12 million viewers), often topping time-slot competitors from CBS’ Hawaii Five-O to NBC’s Deception in the key adults 18-to-49 demographic. “It’s ‘stability Monday night at 10 o’clock,’ ” says Jossen, who joins Marlowe, Fillion and Katic in remembering what went into constructing Castle.

The Hollywood Reporter: How did the concept come about?

Andrew Marlowe: One of the reasons I wanted to do something like Castle is that I had grown up a fan of murder mysteries, not police procedurals. The ones on air — the CSIs and Law & Orders — approached subjects very darkly. I’ve always been a fan of shows like Moonlighting and thought taking that [murder mystery concept] and putting it in a [romantic] sparks-fly arena could be a lot of fun. ABC, a female-friendly network, seemed to be the right place — the Beckett character is a very strong woman — and Castle represents the different aspects of what it means to be a man: the long-suffering son of his mother, the incredibly kind and supportive dad, the rogue in relationships with women.

STORY: From ‘Firefly’ to ‘One Life to Live’: A ‘Castle’ Wink and a Nod to Nathan Fillion Fans

Barry Jossen: Andrew pitched it to ABC, who bought it and started developing it. Then came the writers strike. There was a lot of disarray in our industry, and ABC put it into turnaround. So Michael McDonald, who is now our head of drama, says: “Hey, I really like this project: Why don’t we buy it back and keep developing it?” What happened next was really interesting: It got developed internally at the studio without network involvement. It was then turned in to the network when they were deciding their pilot orders. It was literally the last pilot order that year.

THR: Once Castle went to pilot, how did the casting process go?

Marlowe: I had been a Nathan Fillion fan for a long time — loved his work on Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It seemed like the roles he was getting showcased one side of his talent, and I thought this would showcase everything he could do: the dramatic and the comedic.

Nathan Fillion: I was under a deal at ABC. They handed me a stack of scripts, and Castle was at the bottom. I was 15 pages into it, stopped reading and said to my girlfriend, “You tell me if you don’t think this would be a lot of fun to do.” I had to court some people. Andrew, [executive producer] ArmyanBernstein and a few others came to meet me. I was doing Desperate Housewives at the time. I tried to convince them to stop looking, I talked to them for about 30 minutes: “I’m the guy.”

Marlowe: The search for Beckett took longer. We read about 125 actresses. We had phenomenal actresses walk through our door, but for some reason, that inseparable, magical chemistry wasn’t there. Nathan hung in there: Right when the 123rd actress walked into the room, you could see his eyes going like pinwheels. But when Stana walked in and they started saying the words, it became more electric. We had our fingers crossed that we had captured lightning in a bottle.

Stana Katic: When you’re an actor and you walk into a room, you don’t know who everyone is. It’s not clear who the writer is, who the producers and the director are, because everyone is invested in making it work well, and it’s not clear who the person going to carry the long-haul journey with you is. I remember seeing Andrew for the first time in the audition room. He was off in the back, he had long hair, then he cut his hair really short at the second chemistry read, and I remember saying, “Didn’t you have long hair before?” And that was that!

Fillion: It was exciting for me to meet Susan Sullivan [Castle's mother]. I auditioned for Dharma & Greg to play her son and didn’t get that role. Here I am, on a different TV show, playing her son.

Jossen: We hired Rob Bowman [The X-Files] to direct, and amazingly, that May, Castle was ordered to series.

THR: But attaining the ratings you needed was an uphill battle.

Marlow: We had a great lead-in with Dancing With the Stars, but it was a two-year process with people discovering us. You’re always challenged when you’re premiering midseason because your viewing audience has already made decisions about what they’re going to watch. But also, there’s a virtue to it: The playing field gets shaken out, it becomes clear what holes there are, so we were very lucky to gain traction. At the end of the first season, the running joke was people either loved Castle or never heard of it. So we knew there was a large audience that we hoped to tap into in later seasons. And it’s been great — the off-network cable syndication partnership with TNT is now introducing it to a whole new group of people.

Jossen: When it went on the air, it performed modestly in the ratings and by no means was it a hit. It did well enough to get renewed. But Brian Morewitz [vp drama development at ABC Entertainment] and Channing Dungey [senior vp drama development at ABC] liked the show, affiliate stations were happy to have a strong 10 p.m. show, so one of the things that indicates it’s working is when you have strong internal support and the people who actually work at ABC like watching.

Katic: I think it came down to, first off, the one or two individuals who sustained us from the network end; that required a bit of a leap of faith and tenacity and leadership. And the second, and most important thing for this show, has always been its fans. Early on, they created a wonderful grass-roots Internet campaign, the show grew, and now it’s got an international following [Castle is licensed in about 220 territories].

THR: Favorite episode?

Katic: Where Captain Montgomery got killed was really powerful, and I loved when Castle and Beckett got together.

Fillion: After doing five years, the things that tend to stick out most are moments that we don’t have tons and tons of. So standing over a dead body doesn’t top out for me as much as the moments Castle has at home with his mother and daughter that humanize him and humble him. Everywhere else, he seems in control and a brat about things, but when he’s at home, he is no longer the master of his destiny. He is under his mother’s and daughter’s thumb.

THR: And Marlowe, when did you get the idea to do themed episodes, like the Comic-Con episode?

Marlowe: Honestly, part of that is creative and part of that is a business decision. We are in a very challenged television environment, where it’s hard to break through the noise. We try to do everything we can to have the idea behind the show be its own promotional entity so that you can grasp what the show is easily. We approach it from the point of view of, “What is the poster of this episode?” It’s something that, in my feature background, people talk about all the time. If they’re going to spend $100 million or, these days, closer to $150 million or $200 million, people are going to know what this movie’s about. Bringing that to the television landscape helped us evolve to where we do have these themed episodes, where we go into a world or subculture that we find fascinating as storytellers and think about what Castle and Beckett will respond to.

THR: What’s the secret to Castle‘s success?

Katic: It appeals to an audience that wants dessert after dinner. It’s charming in a classic kind of way. I think people love a bit of heart, humor, drama and stakes, so I suppose it has a nice mix of a lot of different emotions.

Fillion: There are episodes where we do go pretty dramatic, but by and large, we don’t take ourselves terribly seriously. We keep it fairly light. I think it makes it easy to like.

Marlowe: People have been responding to this love story between Castle and Beckett, and they are hungry for shows that make them laugh. Whatever bit of magic we happen to capture, hopefully we’ll be able to continue. The chances of a pilot getting on air are slim, and to reach 100 episodes is a miracle. That’s a result of a lot of people’s hard work and also a lot of luck. It is harder and harder for TV shows to reach this milestone in an environment where you have Internet streaming, places like Netflix for shows, 100 channels of programs, cable. It just really gratifies us that we happened to find such a wonderful and loyal audience.

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The 100th episode of “Castle” may be airing on Monday, April 1 (10 p.m. ET on ABC), but it’s no April Fools joke — in fact, the consequences of the “Rear Window”-esque case could hit surprisingly close to home for our heroes.

At the cake-cutting ceremony for the milestone episode, The Huffington Post caught up with Nathan Fillion, creator Andrew Marlowe and other members of the show’s cast to preview what to expect from the Hitchcock-inspired hour, which Marlowe described as “a champagne glass of an episode,” designed with the series’ most loyal fans in mind — especially those who love Castle (Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic). Read on for what we learned.

Andrew Marlowe (Creator):

• On coming up with the 100th episode: “One of things with the 100th episode is, we wanted to put the lens squarely on the Castle/Beckett dynamic, we wanted to do something that was fun, something that was basically a champagne glass of an episode — it has a lot of sparkle, a lot of wit. So when [co-writer] Terri Edda Miller and I were conceiving it, we were looking for a story that would allow us to put the lens on our principle cast, instead of having a big thing that drew them all away. So putting Castle in the middle of this is kind of “the boy who cried murder.” It’s like Michigan J. Frog. When he’s looking, he sees stuff, and when Beckett comes over, she doesn’t. It allows us to recapture some of the great chemistry we had in the first season. We wanted to do the quintessential episode that could’ve played in any season. We’re really pleased with how it turned out.”
• On how the revelations about Castle’s father (James Brolin) will impact the rest of the season: “It all ties together. Castle and Beckett got together at the end of last season; when you’re in a relationship and you’ve been in it for a while — they’re coming up on a year — you start asking questions. I think Castle has to wrestle with who he is, given what he learned from his father. Beckett’s wrestling with where she is in the universe, and her choice of becoming a cop now that some of the issues around her mother’s death have been resolved. So I think that moves us into an emotional spring for part of our season, where the two of them are feeling their way through what comes next and [asking], ‘Who are we?’ and, ‘What does it mean to be a couple?’ and, ‘Where are we going?’ So I think some big questions are raised and it leads to a very emotional conclusion at the end of the season.”
• On the future of the Castle/Beckett relationship: “What we’ve been doing for the past four years is slowly peeling back who Beckett is for Castle, and now we’re trying to peel back who Castle is. He’s a guy who doesn’t reveal a lot of depth about himself, but you know it’s there and you see it in certain scenes. And now, Beckett is gonna be probing as to ‘who is this guy under the surface?’ We’re gonna see some more of that coming up.”

Nathan Fillion (Richard Castle)

• On the plot of the 100th episode: “Castle is a witness to something heinous, but he’s having trouble convincing his friends that there’s something going down. There’s something that stirs within you [in that situation] — first of all, you have a bit of a ‘really, you don’t have my back?’ moment, and then there’s the moment of, ‘Then I’ll do it on my own, regardless of how I’m injured!’ Those are real-life moments. Those are things that we can all relate to. We’re not all cops investigating murders, but we all do have moments where you say to your friends, ‘I can’t believe you’re not backing me up on this!’ It’s reality-based in that way.”
• On the Castle/Beckett dynamic: One of the things that Castle loves about Beckett is that she challenges him, constantly, so here they are, butting heads. Castle will not be told what he saw was not what he saw.

Jon Huertas (Javier Esposito)

• On his involvement in the 100th episode: “We have a really interesting episode. It’s “Rear Window.” The writing is very Hitchcock-esque, which is very cool, so it’s a little different from what we usually do. Nathan’s character becomes very helpless and isolated and he’s separated from the team and he wants to help the team, but ultimately, he witnesses his own thing and he desperately needs the team, but the team’s not there. I can say that my character, along with a couple of other characters, are instrumental in the end of the episode with bringing him out of what he’s spiraling into. It’s pretty crazy. It’s gonna be a fun reveal.”

Tamala Jones (Lanie Parish)

• On what’s ahead for Lanie: “Lanie is back to secretly seeing Esposito. She is possibly going to be doing some more scenes with Alexis [Molly C. Quinn] coming down to the morgue. We need to revisit that — [that's] one of the things everybody wants to see. I want to see it too! It’s time. There’s so much going on and such little time because the season’s coming to an end, but Andrew and the writers are working their butts off to make everything happen.”

Penny Johnson (Victoria Gates)

• On what’s unique about the 100th episode: “I think that the 100th episode is going to be a surprise, in that we’re gonna see Mr. Fillion in his element … If you could be a fly on the wall, just you and Nathan, I think this’ll be the experience you’ll wanna have.”

Tune in to the 100th episode of “Castle,” “The Lives of Others,” on Monday, April 1 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC.

Source: here

The cast of “Castle” recently celebrated filming their 100th episode, which airs on Monday, April 1, and OTRC.com got a little inside scoop.

Since the show debuted in 2009 the relationship between New York City homicide detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) and novelist Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) has grown, along with the cast of characters on the show.

OTRC.com had a chance to catch up with the cast members of the show, and series creator Andrew W. Marlowe, to talk about the big milestone. We also learned a few things about the episode and about the cast as well.

So check out four things we learned from our “Castle” 100th episode set visit below. (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)

1. The 100th episode has a Hitchcock vibe.

Fillion shed some light on the plot for the 100th episode and explained, “Castle broke his leg and out of sheer boredom, he’s participating in a little voyeurism. He’s watching the people in this building across the street, and our episode becomes a bit of a ‘Rear Window’ episode.”

“I witness a murder and no one seems to think that I saw what indeed I actually saw,” Fillion added. “Everyone’s got a reason why … a reason not to believe me. So I take matters into my own hands.”

Katic also told us that Beckett has to balance her time a little in the episode.

“Castle’s broken his leg and he sees a murder outside of his loft window and Beckett has to jump between babysitting Castle and taking care of a real murder out there in New York City,” she said. “There’s a car chase and an explosion and there’s a love story and it’s unrequited. We have a scandal. You should watch.”

2. Marlowe said 125 actresses tried out for the role of Detective Beckett but it was Katic who had that special something with Fillion.

“I think the show all starts with the chemistry between Nathan and Stana and we were really blessed in order to get Nathan. Nathan was great,” Marlowe said. “We read with 125 different actresses and we were looking for that ineffable something, that chemistry, and when Stana came in, we found it.”

“Without that we wouldn’t have a show,” he added. “So that’s what … if I could point to one thing, it’s that. That’s what people tune in to see every week.”

3. What’s next for Castle and Beckett’s relationship? The couple has a few questions to answer.

Marlowe told OTRC.com about the couple’s relationship, “I think the next step for this couple is figuring out what are they going to do next.”

“They’re coming up on a year this spring, what are we doing next? What is this relationship? Is this real? Are we taking the next step? How invested are you in me? How invested am I in you? So I think we’ll be wrestling with some of those big questions,” he added.

4. Off-screen the cast has become a second family.

Tamala Jones, who plays medical examiner Lanie Parish on the series, said that the cast of “Castle” really do enjoy each other’s company.

“To watch Molly grow up and to just get to know everybody and let this become my secondary family and we’re all still here doing what we love, it’s a true blessing,” she said. “You go to sets and you get along with a few people and with other people it’s like, ‘Oh hey good morning,’ and you go on about your business.”

“But here we all love and kiss and hug on each other and do special things like get the ice cream man out here with the truck or get the coffee man out here with the truck, just whatever,” she added.

Jones later continued, “We go all out for each other here and we really, really love coming to work and being with each other.”

Molly C. Quinn, who started out on the show when she was just 14 years old, talked to OTRC about how Nathan Fillion has become a sort of father-figure in her life.

“This is my family. This is my home. It’s been incredible. Everything, high school, driving lessons, first boyfriend. I remember Nathan saying, ‘I have to meet him,’ and I did! I brought him to set and Nathan met my first boyfriend and my second and my third and my fourth and my fifth … every one,” Quinn said with a laugh. “They cycle quite a bit but he’s always been there for me, you know, he’s an awesome sounding board.”

Source: here

CASTLE viewers got a little bit more insight into Ryan’s backstory in Monday night’s episode, “The Wild Rover,” but the ending also provided a little glimpse into what his future holds: his wife, Jenny, is pregnant! But given that this is an ensemble show — and that Ryan and Jenny’s relationship is the most committed one the series currently has — I was curious what impact the upcoming addition would have on the expectant parents and Ryan’s coworkers.

“We’re trying to figure it out,” CASTLE creator Andrew Marlowe told me. “When people find out they’re pregnant, they don’t tell people right away. They’re in that nervous-anxious period where they’re waiting to get to the three months [of the pregnancy, when it's generally safer]. Most of that stuff is going to be unfolding next season, assuming all goes well and we’re granted a next season.”

However, Marlowe could tease a little bit about the upcoming “bonus” episode, “Still,” which CASTLE star Seamus Dever (Ryan) had previously hinted was “going to look a little bit different.”

“[It's] an emotionally charged episode,” Marlowe noted. “In the process of doing an investigation into a bombing, Beckett triggers a bomb and is put in a position where she can’t move or the bomb is going to go off. It’s a high-stakes, high-tension episode.”

So, nothing at all stressful about that, right?

Are you looking forward to seeing Ryan and Jenny with a baby? And are you intrigued by “Still”?

Source: here

Tonight’s Castle kicks off a two-part episode that will find Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) in the worst position any parent can imagine.

While he and Beckett (Stana Katic) are investigating a case of a missing college student, they make a terrifying discovery: Alexis (Molly Quinn) was with the girl at the time she was kidnapped — and she’s missing, too.

“It’s different when your kid’s at stake,” executive producer Andrew Marlowe says of Castle’s unhinged emotions in the episodes, airing tonight and next Monday. “It’s different when you have nowhere to turn, and I gotta say for Nathan Fillion fans, they should not miss these two episodes.”

For more details on the episodes, check out our conversation with Marlowe:

You always say that you try to do your two-part episodes different each time. So tell me how the idea for this one came about.
ANDREW MARLOWE: Well, last year we got close to destroying the world. The year before that it was a dirty bomb that was going to take out New York, and the year before that it was a serial killer who blew up Beckett’s apartment. We had been getting increasingly bigger and I wanted to pull it back to something that had scope and scale but also had a deep personal investment. And I’ll tell you this, the journey that Castle goes through in this is harrowing and phenomenal. Nathan did an unbelievable job. And we see the character in ways we have never seen the character before.

Tell me about Beckett’s role in this one, where she has to be both a support system to a troubled father and a detective.
It’s incredibly tough to have somebody that you care about going through something harrowing and trying to walk the line between being supportive and doing the job. This is a woman who wants to do everything she can to make sure that they get Alexis back safely. Emotions are running incredibly high with both of them and she’s doing everything she can to support Castle. There’s some really tremendous scenes between the two of them — really tender and emotionally tough scenes between the two characters that I think, hopefully, audiences will dig.

How do Martha and the rest of the team at the precinct cope?
The choice that Martha makes and who she thinks she has to be in this situation I think reveals a depth of character about her. I think we’ve seen moments of it before. But for the folks at the precinct, everybody is invested. This is kind of one of their own.

Lanie (Tamala Jones) has even worked with her.
Absolutely. There’s some fantastic moments in both episodes. I’m really proud of them and I really want people to watch.

Tell me about casting James Brolin as Castle’s long-lost father.
If you’re looking to cast Castle’s dad, the first thing you’re looking for is someone who’s ruggedly handsome. And when you think about guys who are ruggedly handsome, James Brolin is certainly at the top of that last. I gotta tell you, we’ve had a lot of guest cast on this show in five years, but I have never seen the ladies on my crew so swoony over anyone. James has just a great magnetism and a natural charm. He’s terrific in the role we’re really proud of the job he did.

Is Brolin now part of the Castle fold? Should we expect to see him off and on possibly?
It’s possible. I don’t have any immediate plans just because of how the character unfolds in this, and I think viewers, once they see what we’ve done, will understand what I mean by that.

Before I let you go, I have to ask on behalf of a bunch of Castle fans: Are we going to see 3XK again this season?
Didn’t Castle shoot him? Didn’t he fall off the bridge? I thought he was dead…

I DIDN’T SEE A BODY!
You didn’t see a body? Yeah, I didn’t see a body either.

Also, have you nailed down your finale plans?
No, they’re not locked in yet. They’re shaping up. We have some ideas but we’re balancing a bunch of stuff. That’s coming up.

Will there be a cliffhanger?
No comment.

Source: here

(CNN) — After “will-they-or-won’t-they” comes, “what now?”

Over five seasons, viewers of ABC’s “Castle” have gotten to know Richard Castle, a mystery writer paired up with Detective Kate Beckett, and they’ve solved one murder after another, all the while fans were hoping these two would finally get together. At the end of last season, they got their answer.

After TV Guide readers voted them the favorite TV couple (not to mention the show placing in the top five favorites for CNN.com readers), it’s clear that audiences are invested in just where the writers plan to take Castle and Beckett.

CNN.com spoke with “Castle’s” creator Andrew W. Marlowe to find out why this couple and this lighthearted show have struck such a chord in a dark TV landscape. Plus, we found out what’s to come leading into this spring’s 100th episode.

CNN: How has this show evolved over five seasons?

Marlowe: Any show evolves. Hopefully we’ve retained our core values. We’ve had two characters who were forced together and there was friction, and sparks flew.

Of course, over time they got to know each other and a different story emerged — this love story that’s tentative and goes in fits and starts. It’s been fun to mine that, but we’ve maintained the basic core of the show – delivering a great relationship story through the device of the procedural with fun, interesting cases at the heart of it.

But over five years, your characters do have to grow and evolve, otherwise it doesn’t stay fresh and it’s not honest, it’s not true.

Since this was always supposed to be a “will-they-won’t-they” romantic arc, the characters have to grow together, and go through the natural process of a courtship that everybody does.

CNN: To what extent did you map out the course of the show’s romance?

Marlowe: Initially, you’re always hopeful just to stay on the air, and once you’re confident you’ll stay on the air, you start to chart it out.

It was always our intention to get these characters together eventually, but part of the fun is how can you keep them apart naturally?

I didn’t have a firm date [for the relationship to start] when we launched into it. You kind of feel your way through and see what the rhythm is and how the show is evolving. At a certain point I believe you start testing your viewers’ patience when they have a vested interest in it. I’ve never believed in the “curse of ‘Moonlighting’” or all those concerns people had about getting them together.

CNN: Why do you think audiences love this couple and this show?

Marlowe: Anybody who’s been in a relationship understands the give and take. There’s always some fun friction there. You’re also attracted to the things you aren’t, so the things that you love are sometimes the things that drive you crazy.

In a universe of procedurals that are pretty dark, the fact that you can deal with this form in a more lighthearted way is a relief for people. After a hard day’s work, you turn on “Special Victims Unit,” you’re in the darkest place possible with people trying to solve this crime. I was getting to the point when I was conceiving this, thinking I don’t want to bring that into the universe. I wanted to bring in something joyous even though we’re dealing with murder.

I go back to a show like “M*A*S*H” where it’s life or death stakes in the operating room, but there’s also that gallows humor and that humanity. Hopefully we’re finding that tonal balance in “Castle.”

CNN: Has Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic’s chemistry surprised you over the years?

Marlowe: Nathan was generous enough to sit with us as we read 125 or 130 actresses. There was something special in the connection that he and Stana had. There was a tension that was fun and interesting — it was that lightning in a bottle chemistry that you look for, and we were fortunate to get it. We were thrilled with what we had.

CNN: What made Nathan right for the role?

Marlowe: The reason I thought he would be good here is this would be a character that would allow him to play everything he’s good at. This would allow him to be dramatic; this would allow him to be funny; this would allow him to be charming. The role is written to show the different aspects of what it means to be a man: to be a lover, a long suffering son, a tremendous father, a man’s man, to hang out with the boys. The role is written to see all those facets. If we only saw him annoying Beckett, or the narcissism he has, he would come across as very unattractive. The nice thing about the show is we get to see all the facets of the diamond.

CNN: What do you have coming up?

Marlowe: We’re currently working on the 100th episode, but we have some big storytelling before then. Traditionally we have a two-parter this time of year. Castle’s daughter ends up being kidnapped and put into a very difficult situation. We play a lot of it from Castle’s point of view, trying to get her back. It’s a tremendous performance by Nathan.

After the two-parter, we’re doing a little nod to the horror genre, centered around a haunted videotape. Castle sees it and is convinced he’s going to be dead in 48 hours. It’s a ride; it’s a lot of fun.

We find out Ryan has a past going undercover in narcotics, and he ends up having to go undercover again. It turns out he’s a very different person undercover.

Later on this season, we have a murder where it looks like the only credible suspect is Bigfoot, which sends us on a Bigfoot hunt. We like to lean into the genre and end up with a real world explanation.

For the 100th we wanted the quintessential ‘Castle’ show — something that was fun, something with great Castle-Beckett stuff in it. We’re really excited with the direction it’s going in.

Source: here

Source: here

I wouldn’t consider this spoilery, but read at your own risk!

Castle hits the 100 episode milestone this year, any initial plans on how the show will be marking the special occasion? — Cheryl

“I’m noodling on that,” reports executive producer Andrew Marlowe. “You always want [episode] 100 to be compelling. I think we’ve done some really fun stuff and big episodes along the way. Where it falls, since it’s close to the season finale but not the season finale, we have to be cautious that we don’t steal thunder from how we’re intending to end the season.” The solution, he says? Figure it out! “We need to also deliver something interesting, compelling and a memorable hour of TV. So, yeah, the pressure is on!” So send your ideas, gang! Just kidding. Don’t do that. They’ve got this! Meanwhile, make sure you’ve watched this clip from tonight’s episode!

Source: here