ABC's Castle is making a pretty big cast change ahead of season 8 this fall.

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Penny Johnson Jerald, who plays Captain Victoria Gates on the crime procedural, will not be returning for season 8. The actress was dropped from the series due to "creative tweaks," sources tell TVLine. This has not been officially confirmed by ABC though.

Jerald was apparently surprised by the news that she would no longer be appearing in Castle, taking to Twitter this weekend.

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"To my Castle fans around the world, as of late yesterday I am surprised and saddened to learn that I will no longer be a part of the Castle family," she wrote. "Thank you all for your support and love. Hugs from PJJ".

 

The tweet received thousands of retweets and favorites with many outraged Castle fans expressing their anger over the decision.

Castle has had some behind-the-scenes drama as of late, with David Amann exiting as show runner and being replaced by Terence Paul Winter and Alexi Hawley. There were also many months of stars Nathan Fillion (who plays Castle) and Stana Katic (Beckett) not signing new contracts to continue past season 7 though they finally did in the final weeks of the season.

It remains to be seen if Castle will be making any other adjustments to the cast or otherwise heading into season 8.

The eighth season of Castle is set to premiere in the fall on ABC in its regular Mondays at 10 p.m. ET/PT timeslot.

Tags: Castle television ABC