NATHAN FILLION, STANA KATIC.(ABC/Richard Cartwright)

ABC has said the Castle TV series could continue for a ninth season, without stars Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic. While executive producers Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter are open to a spin-off with new leads, they have made it clear to TV Guide, that they would prefer a ninth season of Castle, with the stars returning.

Fillion developed a devoted fan following, while starring in Joss Whedon’s Firefly — cancelled by FOX, in its first season. The relationship between his character, novelist Richard Castle, and Katic’s NYPD Captain, Kate Beckett, has been heavily featured throughout Castle‘s run. While the network and EPs are considering a spin-off without the pair, will fans be receptive?

Here is more from TV Guide [emphasis ours]:

“If we had our choice, it would be the same cast, it would be the same show,” Hawley tells TVGuide.com “We’ve done some fun stuff this year so that it has a little different energy that could absolutely carry through to a Season 9. But both of us are very invested in this, and we understand that Castle has always been about Beckett and Castle. So the idea of that not happening is daunting, and we’re rooting against that.“

Still, Hawley tells TV Guide he and co-showrunner Winter are “exited” to continue the story, even if the stars depart the long-running crime drama series. The EPs believe there is a “lot of life” left in Castle.

Hawley remains mindful of the fact that the eighth season finale will have to provide some closure for fans, in case Fillion and Katic opt out of a ninth season. He talks to TV Guide about writing a season eight finale for Castle that could serve, if it must, as a Castle series finale, yet teases Castle season nine:

Hawley also suggests that, like last year, the show may have to craft a finale that ends both the season and the series. (“In a perfect world, we’ll have clarity going into the end of the season,” he says. “Obviously, there wasn’t clarity last season until the very, very end.”) But Hawley says that wrapping up ongoing mysteries — including Castle’s missing time and Season 8’s LokSat saga — was always the plan.

“LokSat is definitely getting resolved at the end of this year,” Hawley says. “Our hope was to take all the threads — the conspiracies, Sen. Bracken, Castle’s missing time– and really tie them off in a compelling, satisfying way, so that in Season 9 we can tell really compelling standalone stories and leave the conspiracy part of it behind. I think ultimately those stories are about played-out.”

Are you a fan of ABC’s Castle TV show? Do you hope that Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic return for a ninth season? What do you think about a spin-off, without the stars? Sound off, in the comments.