Is Castle About To Give Fans A Major Tragedy? Here's The Evidence

There is one irrefutable fact about Castle’s upcoming Season 8 finale: Stana Katic is leaving Castle and the actress is leaving Castle soon. The Season 8 finale will be the last episode for Kate Beckett and while we’d hope for her to ride off into the sunset, the preview for the finale is looking rather ominous. You can check it out, below.

This trailer is short, but it’s also incredibly intense. It opens with a comment about Kate Beckett’s probable death and ramps up from there. Here’s the ominous opening comment...

The "you" referred to in that quote is Nathan Fillion’s Rick Castle, who is strapped to some contraption, unable to move. The trailer then flashes ahead to a car fire and an epic stand-off, which Beckett seems to recognize as a trap. The logline has noted that Caskett will be attempting to take down LokSat during the finale, but I don’t think this is going to go as well as they hoped. Rick Castle is crying at one point and everyone is talking about tragedy. The whole thing is downright terrifying. I have no idea how the season is going to end, but I wouldn’t throw out the term “happy ending.” Unless this whole thing is a fakeout, which is probably worse, considering all the hype.

There’s a lot going on regarding the Season 8 finale. Not only do we know that Stana Katic and other Castle actress Tamala Jones will be leaving the series, but there’s still the major question of whether or not the ABC procedural will be back next year. ABC didn’t give the show a renewal order right away, although the series has spent the last few weeks renewing the contracts of many of the major players, including Nathan Fillion. The lack of a renewal has forced the Castle team to get creative, however.

We’ve known for weeks that Castle actually shot two endings to Season 8. One ending works better if the show ends up getting cancelled. The other ending effectively reboots the show sans the two actresses who weren’t asked back. Essentially, the ABC drama will be choosing its own ending based on whether or not ABC gives the greenlight to Season 9.

Castle's Season 8 finale hits the schedule on May 16, and we'll presumably hear about ABC's decision sometime before that. In the meantime, we'll let you know as shows continue to be renewed or cancelled, and if you want to know whether your favorites will be back next year, you can check out our full network rundown here.