Renewing Castle for season nine without Katic could open up the series to focus more on a case-of-the-week format rather than the serialized romance between Castle and Beckett. That would mark a change from what was envisioned for the series at the start of season eight, when new showrunners Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter eyed a greater character-driven show rather than a straight-up procedural.
![wtf :wtf: :wtf:](https://www.thecoli.com/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/wtf.png)
1. Castle & Beckett.
2. Series-long storyline
3. The occasional 2-parter episodes every season
If they're going in a direction where they focus on more of "Case of the Week", they might as well cancel the show.