CASTLE: David Amann Teases Death on ‘Mars,’ Castle’s Missing Time, Beckett Mythology, and More

CASTLE has (seemingly) said goodbye to its 3XK arc, and now it’s time for the team to get a little bit of a breather…to solve a murder on Mars.

No, the team isn’t going to space (though there are plenty of space/alien/sci-fi jokes in the hour), but the next episode, “The Wrong Stuff,” finds Castle, Beckett, and the team investigating the death of an astronaut who was training for a potential mission to Mars. (It’s as hilarious as you might expect.)

And while there are some lighter hours ahead, the show will also touch back on the mystery of Castle’s wedding day disappearance and subsequent missing months, and Beckett will try to figure out what’s next in her life.

I spoke with CASTLE boss David Amann about those things, and more…

ABC hasn’t renewed any of its shows yet, but this is also a year where there are contract negotiations for your leads. How are you shaping the final run of episodes of season 7 with that uncertainty in mind?
David Amann: We know where we’re going with the end of the season. We’re excited about the episodes [that are] upcoming. We have a plan for whatever comes along. We’re optimistic for a season 8, and we’ll do the episodes we can in the meantime.

I think we’ll take it as it comes. We’ve typically been able to resolve our seasons in an interesting an compelling way, and we’ll do that, whatever comes about.

We got a bit of a mention of Castle’s missing months during the two-parter. When will the show be more fully exploring that?
DA: We believe it will reappear around episode 20. We’ll be revisiting the things he doesn’t remember.

Will it be a scene or two, or will the episode be more focused on that?
DA: I think that there are a lot of unanswered questions about that period of time. We owe the audience at least a partial explanation of what occurred, and that’s always been our goal. It very well may be that at the end of it all, not every question is answered, but I think we’ll walk away from that answer with great clarity about what happened to Castle.

That’s fantastic. What upcoming cases can you preview?
DA: One that’s particularly fun from my point of view is the [“The Wrong Stuff”]. There’s a murder on a mars simulation — there’s a bunch of [potential] astronauts who are locked up on “Mars,” preparing for the journey, and the problem is, no one, seemingly, could have gotten in or out of the simulation. We think there’s a lot of fun to be had there. It’s a really fun, poppy episode written by Terri Miller, directed by Paul Holahan. We think it’s delightful.

As they’re investigating the case, who is enjoying that environment the most?
DA: I think everybody got a kick out of it, because they’re all getting to walk around in space suits with the lights inside the helmets. I think everyone was having a good time. And the sets — the production design that was done for that show was remarkable by Alfred Sole and his team.

We have a couple other episodes in that [lighter direction] as well. We’ll be getting into the mythology in episode 20, and probably a bit of Beckett mythology. As usual, we have a mix between the fun shows and the shows that are leaning towards mythology or drama.

What kind of Beckett mythology will you be touching on?
DA: It’s kind of too soon to talk about that one. But we think it’s going to open up a little more storytelling for Beckett moving forward.

But it’s not Beckett’s mother’s murder case, correct?
DA: No. It may touch on things adjacent to that, but we regard that as pretty much settled now.

One of the things we’re playing with in the latter part of the season is that Beckett is in a mode of trying to figure out what she’s going to do next. Now that her mother’s murder has been solved, and things have settled between her and Castle to a large degree. We have her involved in a case with a very accomplished female detective from Hong Kong coming up in episode 17. And it’s an episode where it’s a lot of fun. Beckett’s measuring herself against this woman, and thinking about whether she’s met her match in this other detective. That’s another episode that’s coming up that we think fans are going to like.

Will that arc be touching on Beckett’s potential desire for children?
DA: I think the children discussion is really about the larger issue she faces, which is what does she want to do moving forward? And that’s something she’s going to be exploring as a character the next several episodes. Children is one aspect of that, but there’s also other things that relate to her career and her aspirations, that she’s now starting to contemplate.

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CASTLE airs Mondays at 10 PM on ABC.

Related:

CASTLE Post-Mortem: David Amann on Closing the 3XK Chapter
CASTLE: ‘The Wrong Stuff’ Photos
CASTLE: ABC President Paul Lee on the Future of the Show

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