Stana Katic Breaks Her Silence on ‘Harsh’ Departure From ‘Castle’

Stana Katic is speaking out about her abrupt Castle departure.

Back in 2016, ABC announced Katic would be leaving the beloved crime procedural only to cancel the series altogether weeks later, a move that was seen at the time as a public relations fiasco.

According to TVLine, the actress is finally coming clean about her feelings on the incident.

“I’m actually still not clear on the thought process behind the way that it went down,” the actress said to Entertainment Weekly. “It hurt and it was a harsh ending.”

Despite the unfortunate end of the fan-favorite series, Katic — whose new series Absentia premieres Feb. 2 on Amazon — said she has made peace with the circumstances and now focuses on the positive side of her last job.

“I met so many beautiful people [on the show], and we collaborated on something really unique,” she said. “It would be a disservice to those people, to the work that we did together, and to my work, which I feel contributed, in part, to the success of the show, to be anything but grateful.

“It was a formative experience,” she continued, “and we told a love story that I feel moved people, touched people, and I can’t be anything but glad that I was a part of something like that. I hope it remains something special in viewers’ minds forever.”

Castle, which ran for eight seasons and 178 episodes on ABC, told the story of Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) a famous mystery novelist who, is brought in by the New York Police Department for questioning regarding a copy-cat murder based on one of his novels.

He finds himself intrigued by Kate Beckett (Katic), the detective assigned to the case. Castle decides to use Beckett as his muse for the main character of his next book series and uses his friendship with the mayor to force the police to let him shadow her. The two eventually become friends and then lovers.

Their cases often deal with murders occurring within various unusual subcultures or milieus, including reality TV shows, vampire enthusiasts, a science fiction convention, and a man who claims to be a time traveler.