Castle's first Season 7 twist is a big one.
Creator Andrew W. Marlowe will pass the showrunner torch to executive producer David Amann for the upcoming season, TVGuide.com has learned. Although Amann will be the primary showrunner, Marlowe will maintain a day-to-day presence on the show while also developing new projects as part of his overall deal with ABC Studios.
"Over the past four seasons, David has proven himself to be a tremendous leader and a great steward of our show's unique voice," Marlowe said in a statement. "I'm excited to continue our creative collaboration as he assumes his new responsibilities."
The transition comes at a crucial point for the ABC procedural drama. On the Season 6 finale (watch it here), longtime lovebirds Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) had their wedding day ruined when Castle was run off the road by a mysterious person driving an SVU. The closing shot featured Castle's car in flames, while the whereabouts of the mystery writer were unknown.
Creator Andrew W. Marlowe will pass the showrunner torch to executive producer David Amann for the upcoming season, TVGuide.com has learned. Although Amann will be the primary showrunner, Marlowe will maintain a day-to-day presence on the show while also developing new projects as part of his overall deal with ABC Studios.
"Over the past four seasons, David has proven himself to be a tremendous leader and a great steward of our show's unique voice," Marlowe said in a statement. "I'm excited to continue our creative collaboration as he assumes his new responsibilities."
The transition comes at a crucial point for the ABC procedural drama. On the Season 6 finale (watch it here), longtime lovebirds Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) had their wedding day ruined when Castle was run off the road by a mysterious person driving an SVU. The closing shot featured Castle's car in flames, while the whereabouts of the mystery writer were unknown.
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Oh, wow. Didn't see this one coming, but I'm interested to see how Amann will handle being showrunner.
ReplyDeleteAfter pulling that shit at the end of the season finale, I really didn't see this coming. *not being sarcastic*
ReplyDeletei just hope amann doesnt "jump the shark". at least marlowe isnt completely out of the picture, which is good.
ReplyDeleteI think it's safe to assume this is Castle's final season, as Marlowe tries to develop projects to be picked up for 2015/16 TV. I wish him much luck as I have loved Castle from the start
ReplyDeleteFor all the fans who "In Marlowe we trust" must be feeling a little less love right about now...
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't mean it's the final season. Shows have lasted for many years after the original showrunner exits.
ReplyDeleteWhoever takes over,castle should maintain it's awesome storytelling nonetheless.Beckett FTW!!
ReplyDeleteMeh. Castle is a hard show to screw up. No big deal here.
ReplyDeleteLOL, I was thinking "And who are we going to trust now?"
ReplyDeleteOMG, the first good news about the show for a long time. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know how good Amman will be (he wrote a number of key episodes, but none of them are among my favourite ones, except maybe the 3XK from S3), but anyhow at least now there is a chance for the show to change for the better, which would have been impossible if AM stays at the helm.
Well, it was almost said when they announced his new projects early this year... Milmar is a great team and had great writers for Castle so I'm still trusting them ,)
ReplyDeleteLoL,i'm sure there are a lot of fans saying that!
ReplyDeleteHardly the last season. Castle would have to drop to REV-levels for that to be a consideration. The show is set for at least two or three years. It does well in syndication and it's the only thing close to a procedural on ABC (some of the repeats this spring did quite well).
ReplyDeleteHope the show doesn't suffer from this.
ReplyDeleteagree, but is also true that Marlowe did a very fine job until now, i guess we'll see if and how the show will change in the upcoming season.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't think there will be much of a noticeable change at all.
ReplyDeleteya me too ^^
ReplyDeleteVery mixed feelings about this. We'll just have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteSorry guys, I'm very much in the "leave them wanting more" category so popular ratings should only decide when it continues rather than when it should creatively end. If they've got an organic ending in mind (and seeing as she's defeated her mother's killer), then I would rather see that sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteI recently finished Chuck, and do watch Supernatural. Enjoyable shows but constantly trying to find their feet after a built up "final episode".
Completely agree. I kind of wish Veritas was the series finale but, right after Bracken's downfall, the episode would jump ahead to Castle and Beckett getting married surrounded by their friends and families. That would have been awesome.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that he said Jim Beckett was nowhere neither when the killer of his wife was caught nor when his only daughter was going to be married because they couldn't book the actor for the time of filming those episodes, I sincerely doubt that AM had any idea about a season for a long time. He might know where he start and where they would be at the finale, but even this isn't sure.
ReplyDeleteIn S3 it was obvious that the show changed course drastically when ABC made the mistake to renew it early. (In January, right before the filming of the two parter - and we had got back Josh for the rest of the season, thank you Mr Marlowe.) Then in S4 in February, after the hackfest of Pandora/Linchpin and the complete stagnation with the Big Sekrits ABC made two surveys in two weeks about the audience's opnion (which was very impatient about lack of any development) - and voilá suddenly the season ended with Always.
He very cleverly rode the technical schedule of the 22-23 episode seasons, didn't do almost anything till February-March, then in the last third of the season he dropped most of those things what the fandom missed the most in the comments and posts and hoped that it would be enough. (Note: from business POV this is a Level A+ attitude. His task is to garner money to the channel, and fill his own purse at the same time - quality of storytelling is nowhere on the to-do-list, except it is a must to achive the first two goals.)
I am surprised by this news.
ReplyDeleteI'm also shocked by how many people seem to hate Andrew Marlowe. I thought people liked him. Goes to show how much out of the loop I am.
Not sure how I feel about this, after that terrible disappointing finale I'm glad he's gone and that the show will get some new blood, but on the other hand a lot of shows change for the worse when the original showrunner exits, guess we'll have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteIt will depend on the negotiation with the actors, though as it's said here - mocking a celebrity appearance in an ad - there is the sum of money wich makes my hair have dandruff.
ReplyDeletePreviously neither NF nor SK was keen about being stuck in the show for 8-10 years. Stana complained (maybe not the right word) that playing the same character for nine months sucks out her creative energies, plus she had her own filming projects. Nathan stated even in the fall of 2013 in a UK interview that he would like to finish the show until it is on high notes, not when everybody is fed up with it, he thinked it had 6-7 seasons.
ABC would want to continue until the seas run dry, that is not a question, we will see what they manage to agree on?
I agree. And altough I didn´t see this coming, I´m ok with Amann being the new showrunner, I loved the episodes he wrotte so far.
ReplyDeleteAbout s7 being the last one, I also think it will be, but not because Marlowe is leaving - the contracts are ending and I don´t see neither NF or SK wanting to renew them...
Thank god.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Hate is what I feel, I was offended by his interviews post mortem and his blah blah interviews earlier in the series ,As a writer he had some great episodes early, and Miller seemed to write better without him as well. Together they went down hill to a sorry excuse of writing not fit for a High School production, contrived and cliché then his interviews really pissed off the fans who were strung along,
ReplyDeleteI was amused at Terri M's tweet about them not going away, look up Showrunner and you will see that either he stepped down, or was asked to we will never know for sure, but it was apparent many of the cast were not happy with the finale either, BUT they are the boss. IMO we now have a shot at getting S 8 with NF and SK, I don't think they would sign with MilMar, just my opinion nothing to back it before I get all hate mail
didn't see this coming, but hopefully the new guy can keep the good stuff coming.
ReplyDeleteI hope I'm wrong and all but I got a bad feeling about this one.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I'm not on Twitter, so I didn't know that the actor's themselves didn't like the finale.
ReplyDeleteAs for the show itself, I've liked it from the beginning and never felt any were "a sorry excuse of writing for a High School production" Sure, there was stuff with both Martha and Alexis that I could have done without, but those were always the smaller "B" stories, so it didn't bother me that much.
At all the fans that think this decision is made because of the final... you couldnt be more wrong lol this is a long running thing and basicly nothing changes as marlowe will still be EP and still write episodes.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's not about the finale, it's about what he came up to the execs about the S7 after three weeks of writing. It's worth to watch SK's latest interview, it's very clear from it that even the lead character had not the slightest inkling about what the hell did he do and want to get from it? It is very likely that in March he convinced the channel that the finale would not harm the audience's willingness to watch the show and then he got one last chance to come up with something strong to remedy the disaster he caused. He failed and now he got his axe, wrapped in nicely.
ReplyDeleteNo showrunner realizes suddenly that doing this job is a tiring one and leave a currently running show just for working on hazy, not specified other projects. Changes like this usually announced during the upfront, mainly if it is a planned one with somebody already in the show. Marlowe had never ever admitted that he might do something wrong, of course he instigates that he will be involved in the future. On the other hand ABC had a living contract with him to develop scripts, it's not their interest to humiliate him openly. (BTW: him stating that the reason of his leaving is that it is too tiresome to work on endlessly on the show and wants some rest, but saying at the same time that beside being involved day-to-day level he now will work on several other projects as well is the same level of half baked, contradicting story what he wrote in the show.)
As I said above, I don't expect Amman to be the Saint Salvator, but there are story building decisions which are the sole competence of the showrunner. He picks out from the from the differents ideas which version is going to be filmed, which filmed scene would stay in the final version (hello "Always"). So if (IF!!) he has a different approach, it can help. We will see what he can do with it, but with a new man at the helm there are at least a chance for something better.
Happy to hear he's leaving 'cause it's about time the show gets a fresh pair of eyes. But when I read that nothing's going to change, I was disappointed.
ReplyDeleteSorry but I'm one of the few ppl who didn't like s6 much and the many plot holes and tiresome storylines the show's having since s5. I would welcome a change.
Agreed! But from the sounds of things, AM will still have a major say in things so there might not be a change at all - which sucks. I like Amann and find he's a better storyteller than AM so I was hopeful for a better season next season. But....
ReplyDeleteThats what i said... its not about the final but there are shitloads of fans that like to think its because of the final (which i liked) too justisfy their feeling about it.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's about his general incompetence to keep the show appealing, even though in case of Castle it required more talent to screw it up than to make it good.
ReplyDeleteWell, being just a nametag would be a creative suicide from Amman. If he accepted the seat (and the responsibility) of the showrunner and let AM run the show (and let the people believe that it's AM who says the last word), then all the successes will be counted on Marlowe's account while all the flops will be his mistake. It would also mean that S7 is decided to be the last season, because nobody in Hollywood would agree with sane mind to be a declared puppet for infinite times.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that I'm torn. I did like AM as show runner, he was the one that started this amazing journey of this show and he brought Rick and Kate together. But yeah, I was upset about the finale (even though I already knew there would be no wedding...not many shows that I know of would have a wedding in a season finale- always a chance that the wedding would be left in a cliffhanger either good or bad). I now think that this is great decision, maybe someone else taking over will bring new creative ideas in the stories and for the characters.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know about the contracts of NF and SK? Will they and the rest of the cast need to sign/negotiate for new contracts soon?
It's no big deal. I think Castle will remain as great as it has been since the beginning. Amann will be great.
ReplyDeleteI thought some of the people here leaving comments werent going to watch the show any more and watch "The Blacklist' because the finale didnt go your way, that you hated and you told AM "F-ck You". Oh and the death threats he received. .Hmmmm, kind of ironic that when Andrew Marlowe leaves you have plenty to say now.
In this case its your opinion that its because of his incompetence but to me he did everything right and hes just stepping down one step to give other projects a go and ABC prob had something to do with it.
ReplyDeletewow! never saw this one coming! Andrew was always there since season 1. The fandom loves him. Well, at least, he'll still be there.
ReplyDelete