At the recent Television Critics Association Press Tour cocktail party celebrating ABC, theTVaddict.com recently had the chance to interrogate, err, we mean question, umm… sorry, politely interview CASTLE executive producer Laurie Zaks in an effort to get her to spill some serious secrets with regards to tonight’s much-anticipated season premiere. But were we successful? Find out for yourself after the jump.
Laurie Zaks: We just pick-up exactly where we left off — at the hospital and Beckett’s on a stretcher, she’s holding on to life and Castle’s running up in the back. And she looks pretty good — but Stana could not look bad! Even once they dirtied her up, she just never look bad. She looked rather angelic actually. But I can’t tell you anymore after that. It does take off — it begins exactly where the season finale left and by the end of the episode, a lot of questions will be answered.
Yeah, I think it will evolve in its natural course. There are certain reveals in the premiere episode that will dictate how the relationship goes. That’s all I can say!
Yeah, but it depends on what fan you are. Again, all those questions will be answered. I think it’s satisfying — really satisfying. You’ll meet the new captain in the first episode, and she’s lovely. It’s Penny Johnson Jerald, who was in 24. It’s interesting because it opens up a whole new dynamic in the relationships on the show because now — Beckett is very strong woman and she’s going up against another strong woman who really doesn’t want any of her attitude. So it’s a whole new dynamic there. I actually thought Montgomery was a little lax with Beckett, so this is good. But we miss Ruben.
I think if was more about the story telling and where the story telling was. It just evolved that way. But what comes out of that — because we did kill off the character — it does shake up the show because there is a whole new dynamic. I mean, it wasn’t like a decision, “Let’s shake up the show. Let’s kill an actor.” It wasn’t bad contract negotiations or anything. It was all part of — as the story of Beckett’s mom evolved and that whole mythology evolved, it just led that way, that was the only thing that could happen. Will Beall, who wrote all those mother-centric episodes, he really was the one who came up with it. He wrote a brilliant mythology.
No, it’s not coming to a close. Remember, somebody is out there. The person who hired all these guys. The premiere episode will start answering a lot of questions and that storyline will continue. 
CASTLE returns with new episodes on September 19th at 10PM on ABC (CTV in Canada) and stars Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Susan Sullivan, Molly C. Quinn, Jon Huertas, Tamala Jones, Seamus Dever and Penny Johnson. Catch up with past episodes you may have missed for free online at clicktowatch.tv.
Tiffany Vogt is a contributing writer to TheTVAddict. She has a great love for television and firmly believes that entertainment is a world of wondrous adventures that deserves to be shared and explored – she invites you to join her. Please feel free to contact Tiffany at Tiffany_Vogt_2000@yahoo.com or follow her at on Twitter (@TVWatchtower).