Nathan Fillion Didn’t Think He Would Star in Another Network Series After ‘Castle’

Actor Nathan Fillion wasn’t out of work for too long after the Castle series finale . He migrated to another hit show in The Rookie , whose success matched and perhaps even surpassed Castle ’s. But initially, doing another network series wasn’t what he had in mind before Rookie came along.

What Nathan Fillion initially wanted to do after ‘Castle’ ended

Castle was one of Fillion’s most successful shows, enjoying high ratings at its peak and lasting for eight seasons. But while the series was still running, Fillion felt the show didn’t have to arrive at a natural conclusion. Similar to other long-running procedurals, he believed that Castle could run indefinitely, with the show’s lifespan being up to the showrunners.

“I’m going to reserve my opinion for the future. I’m going to just kick back and wait and watch and see what happens. My hope is that there’s no natural end point. That we can continue as long as we want to. That would be nice,” Fillion once said in an interview with Playboy .

Although Fillion wasn’t thinking about an ending, he had a vague idea about what he wanted to do after Castle . One thing he seemed pretty adamant about was avoiding the long grind of another network series.

“Right now, I don’t feel like I could be seduced by another seven years, another decade on a TV show. I don’t think that would seduce me at the moment. Compressed jobs, a month, a week, three months and then you’re done. That stuff is feeling really exciting for me,” Fillion said.

Ironically, Fillion will be approaching seven years on his network series The Rookie , which he decided to do not too long after Castle’s end. When he was once asked why he jumped on board the network series, it seems the show’s concept was too good to pass up.

“It was the pitch,” Fillion told The Hollywood Reporter about the show. “You want a character you feel you can serve — you can serve the character, serve the story. Being in the business as long as I have, I’ve broadened my scope. And the core idea of the show, it has to be something strong enough to carry it a number of years. You want the potential for more. You don’t want to hit a roadblock where you’ve run out of stories because our engine isn’t built that way.”

Nathan Fillion felt ‘Castle’ helped create this new subgenre

Fillion has often credited some of Castle’s success to its lightheartedness. Although the series dealt with heinous murders and sinister criminals, it approached its subject matter with a levity missing from other similar shows . Fillion felt its unique mixture of comedy and drama put it in a category outside of conventional television genres. This might’ve further helped Castle stand out from shows with familiar stories, inspiring a brand new genre.

I’ve heard it referred to as the engine of the show is such that it keeps it going,” Fillion said. “The engine of this show was this cat and mouse of this guy that really liked this girl and this girl that couldn’t access her emotions, but we all know that together they did great. I really enjoyed that aspect. I also wholeheartedly believe that, unlike other procedurals, we don’t take ourselves terribly seriously. We are light fare. As far as murder mystery goes. At the same time, it’s kind of the double edge of that sword is it doesn’t allow us to be put in any category. I am told they’re talking about putting a new category out there for these called ‘dramedies.’ Because our show is neither a comedy nor a drama.”