Finally a Happy Ending? Castle Boss Breaks Down Castle and Beckett's Wedding

After years of will-they-won't-they stalling, numerous near-death experiences and one failed trip down the aisle, the detective duo at the center of ABC's Castle is finally getting married.
"Yes, yes it is going to happen," executive producer David Amann tells TVGuide.com with a laugh. Some fans may need that reassurance considering the Season 6 finale ended with Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) — in full bride-to-be garb — discovering that the reason her groom, mystery novelist Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), hadn't made it to the wedding was that he was involved in what appeared to be a fiery car crash.

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While it's unlikely the show would ever pull such a duplicitous stunt twice, there is still some room for skepticism. After all, the bulk of Monday's episode (10/9c, ABC) features Castle trapped in an alternate reality.  But Amann promises those shenanigans will not stand in the way of an "I do.""This is an episode that we had talked internally about for a period of time," Amann says. "We've always been looking for the right version of the story and the right reason to tell it, and we think we found it this time. Castle is experiencing a version of his life had he not met Beckett, and it's considerably less rich. There's a lot of fun with him trying to make sense of this world that he's in, trying to figure out a way out of it. ...  But at the end of the day, there's a realization that he really wants to move forward, and he wants to do it now."Although the episode doesn't revisit specific memorable moments from the show's past, it does mine the show's history. For example, because Castle never met Beckett, he also never wrote the Nikki Heat book series. Thus, his career took a decidedly different turn. Similarly, Castle's mother Martha (Susan Sullivan) and his daughter Alexis  (Molly Quinn) are not quite the same either.

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As for what traps Castle in this alternate reality, Amann says it will be explained... sort of. "He's investigating a case that turns out to be related to a missing object which may or may not have mysterious properties to it," he says. "At the end of the episode, I think we're left with a question as to whether there was something really paranormal that went on here, or whether the explanation was a little bit more grounded in reality. So, the audience can decide for themselves which one of those things is true."And does Castle's sudden urge to get married after going through the experience throw Beckett off? "She doesn't necessarily know quite what has driven him to this point, because she hasn't experienced the story that he has," Amann says. "But I think that she's emotionally right there with him."Because the episode devotes so much time to the alternate reality, the wedding  will naturally not be as much of a production as originally planned. But Amann says that doesn't take anything away from the milestone. "We came very close to doing the other version of the big wedding... and all the hoopla that's associated with that, and we knew that we didn't want to do quite the same thing," he says. "Because Castle is driven by his experience to kind of act on the idea of getting married so quickly, we knew it was going to make it a slightly different kind of ceremony. But that being said, it's a wonderful, wonderful moment... and we hope the fans share that view."

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Yes, even those fans who shouted their anger from the rooftops after the failed wedding last season. "They will certainly be vocal, but we feel it delivers the best version of what we wanted that moment to be. There are obviously people who felt a little thwarted, and I think now that the wedding will become a reality, I think the people who felt forsaken or betrayed by the end of last season, my hope is that that earns back whatever good will we might have lost with them."As for the future of the series, Amann doesn't believe that marrying his two lead characters will fundamentally change anything. "We've been dealing with them in a relationship now for quite a period of time," he says. "There'll be things that come up now that they're married that wouldn't have come up before that'll be the source of conflict and fun, but a lot of it will revolve around similar storytelling that we've been doing since they became an official couple. It's really about finding their points of view in the cases, what's their point of conflict, and having opportunities for the fun, banter-y exchanges that we think are kind of the lifeblood of the show. We'll continue finding those opportunities."And that includes the honeymoon, when instead of relaxing in some tropical paradise, the duo will get right back to work, investigating the death of a woman who was poisoned on a dude ranch. "In the course of Castle's disappearance, Beckett burned off all her vacation days," Amann explains. "There isn't a possibility of taking a honeymoon, at least right away. So Castle sees this as a golden opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by solving a case and taking a honeymoon.  Well, that doesn't sound like much fun. "Beckett is deeply ambivalent about this being the kind of honeymoon that they would go on, but that doesn't prevent them from having a good time," Amann teases. "There will be some fun and shenanigans along the way. "Castle airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC. Are you excited to see Castle and Beckett finally get married?