The new season of ABC's Castle will feature smaller cases while amping up the character drama.

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Castle showrunners Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter are shaking things up in the upcoming eighth season, starting with Beckett (Stana Katic) becoming the new captain of the precinct.

Hawley and Winter spoke with TVLine in a new interview about giving the show a new "energy" in season 8.

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"At the end of the day we came into the season wanting to shake things up - partly because it's Season 8 and while the show has been doing a great job at what's it's been doing, we've been given an opportunity to add some energy into it," Hawley said. "We want to simplify the cases a bit so we can spend more time getting into our characters. And it's across the board - it's Alexis, it's Ryan and Esposito, it's Martha, it's the new characters coming in, [played by] Toks [Olagundoye] and Sunkrish [Bala]."

But of course, the show will always be about the Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett relationship.

"The important thing to say [about] them is: The show has always been and will always be about their love affair, but we're looking to add some drama to it, some spark to it," Hawley said. "So we're going to have fun. It's going to be emotional at times, it will be romantic, it will be everything."

The drama begins right off the bat in the season premiere, with Beckett suddenly going missing. The first episode will be told from Castle's point of view while Beckett's side of the story will be revealed in the second episode.

Castle season 8 premieres Monday, Sept. 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

Tags: Castle television ABC