We are Andrew W. Marlowe and David Amann, Executive Producers of Castle on ABC! AUA!

Were you surprised at how many fans were more upset about Beckett's Vegas "marriage" (that she wasn't one and done) than about the Caskett marriage not taking place in the finale? (Cant wait for tonight so excited for the twists & turns of season 7!)

AWM: As far as Beckett knew, she was a one-and-done kind of gal. She had no idea that she was actually married. But we felt that having a very human moment in her past would put her and Castle on more equal footing going into the marriage. And the moment in Vegas happened before the defining event in her life - her mother's murder.

So who actually writes the Nikki Heat books in real life?

AWM: The ruggedly handsome author Richard Castle.

Is it true (origin: "sources") that in fact Martha Rodgers was an ultra secret agent during the Cold War, and that she met her companion during a mission?

AWM: The answer to that is classified by order of the US government.

DA: If we told you, we'd have to kill you, and we don't even know who you are.

what are you most excited about this new season?

Given the mystery of what happened to Castle at the end of last season, we're excited to explore more about the Richard Castle character. We spend a lot of time in the past six years dealing with the Beckett mythology, but this year, we will have an interesting opportunity to uncover some facets of Castle's past that should make for compelling storytelling. But along the way, we'll still have plenty of the fun and exciting kinds of Castle episodes that fans have grown to know and love.

What has been your favourite thing about working on the show the past few years?

AWM: The opportunity to deal with interesting, rich characters and work with a great team of creative and passionate people.

Hi Andrew and David. In season 6 Disciple, the song playing at the end of the episode will we get answers in season 7 what it means?

DA: It's fair to say we haven't seen the last of 3XK in the series.

How do you know when you are in love?

AWM: All the songs make sense.

What was the hardest episode to write so far?

AWM: Every episode has its own challenges. For instance, Always was really hard to write because we were pulling together so many different threads. 47 Seconds was hard because of the complexity of the storytelling.

DA: I'd add one thing to that. In general, some times the difficult episodes to write are season premiers that follow up on a cliffhanger. Or season finales where you have to turn the mythology. I remember After the Storm as being tough to write.

Are we going to have a musical episode this season?

DA: I will say this: A lot of shows attempt the musical episode and most of them turn out to be disappointing. But if we can find a way to do it that would really be a great show and fun for the audience, we will think about it.

Are we going to see something about Lanie's backstory?

DA: That's something a lot of fans are interested in seeing, and so are we. We may get more of a glimpse of her, who she is, and her back story later this season.

Hello Andrew and David, thanks for taking the time to do this AMA.

Probably my favorite component of the show Castle is the relationship between Castle and Beckett. To me, it's such a genuine relationship partly because they always compromise with one another and try to be understanding, instead of blowing problems out of proportion just to create some shallow drama. For instance with "Secret Santa", Castle is understanding that Beckett finds the holiday season difficult and prefers to work despite that she lied to protect his feelings.

How much does the professional relationship between Nathan and Stana impact the relationship dynamics of Castle and Beckett? Is it a natural chemistry we are witnessing on the show?

What were some of the challenges you faced deciding the path that Caskett's relationship would take; or have the decisions been effortless?

AWM: We're every fortunate to have Nathan and Stana playing these roles. Their on screen chemistry is undeniable. In terms of crafting the relationship, we've always tried to be authentic with their feelings while balancing situations that challenge them and keep the show dramatic. In dealing with network television and producing 23 episodes a year, nothing is effortless.

DA: Virtually all the significant decisions we make about the Castle / Beckett relationship are ones we spend a lot of time thinking about and discussing. So not so effortless.

Hi Andrew & David - Welcome to Reddit. Love the show and I have a few questions for you:

1. With the end of last season, and the Beckett myth-arc all wrapped up, I assume this season will be more focused on our Ruggedly Handsome, titular character. It's been hinted before that there are some dark things in his past. Are you worried about how exploring that might affect how fans perceive Richard Castle?

2. The Castle 'genre' can be pretty fluid throughout a season. We've seen drama, comedy, espionage, sci-fi, and more. Are there any genres left that you'd like to drop the characters in?(and I am very excited about the AU episode this season)

3. When the show started, and up through about Season 3, there was a lot more focus on Castle as a writer. Did you intentionally tone down the amount of time spent on that aspect of the show or was it something that happened naturally?

Thanks and here is looking forward to a great season!

1. AWM: We're not intending to do anything that will violate the nature or spirit of the Castle character, while opening up a different understanding and some new mythology.

DA: I would also add that in exploring some of Castle's back story, we're not looking to change the tonal balance of the show in any way.

1. DA: First of all, the tonal range and elasticity of the show in terms of the kinds of episodes we can make is one of the great joys in working on it because the storytelling, the series itself, and the actors can accommodate a great spectrum from very dramatic to comedic. As far as new genres, we are right now shooting an episode that's an homage to Westerns.

2. DA: As Castle and Beckett's partnership has grown over the course of time, him being a writer and her being his inspiration for "Nikki Heat" is now a smaller part of the relationship.

Thanks for doing this AMA! What's your favorite moment of character development for Castle? for Beckett?

AWM: Castle's admission to Beckett that he loves her in Beckett's apartment during Always.

DA: I don't know if it's my favorite, but one that i love because of how Nathan performed it, was a moment in Target where Castle is interrogating a suspect alone and threatens to kill him in the course of finding Alexis, who's missing. It was a great moment for Nathan and you saw a different side of that character and what he would do when his family was threatened.

How much of your writing influenced by the actor you write for (beside the amazing talent of your actors who deliver so perfectly everything you throw them) ? Also There is anything we can do to campaign for an Emmy? Stana was robbed too many times, and so was Nathan for Target.

DA: I think there's a synergistic quality to the writing and the acting on this show and a lot of shows. Often times, and not necessarily in a conscious way, the writers respond to what the actors are doing and write towards who they are as characters and what their strengths are as performers. We happen to be blessed by a cast that has a great many strengths in many areas.

If you had an unlimited budget for an episode, what would you love to do?

AWM: I'd do a re-telling of Star Wars with our characters.

DA: We would put Castle and Beckett on an expedition to Mars.

AWM: We hear there are a lot of murders on Mars.

Happy cakeday!

Favorite onscreen couples in history of film and TV?

AWM: Bogie and Bacall. Tracy and Hepburn. Anyone and Stanwyck.

DA: Those are good choices.

what is your favorite castle quote?

AWM: "My safe word is 'apples.'"

What do you like the most about working with Stana and Nathan?

AWM: Nathan and Stana are both tremendously smart, talented, and gifted actors. They each have a great point of view on their characters and have been helpful to us in defining who their characters are.

DA: Both of them possess great skills as actors and do a wonderful job of delivering on both the comedy and drama of the show.

What's been your biggest challenge going into this season?

AWM: Dealing with the consequences of where we left last season.

DA: Addressing the mystery of what happened to Castle.

One of my favorite aspects of the show is its natural character development. Are the characters becoming what you imagined when you first began writing the series, or have they grown organically in ways that you didn't expect?

AWM: Both. The Castle/Beckett trajectory has followed along the lines of my expectations. But along the way we've kept ourselves open to things the characters have asked us for as we developed them. When I was writing the pilot, the back-stories of Lanie, Espo, Ryan, Martha, and Alexis weren't fully explored, so it was fun to get into the series and develop those characters. And some of the things we discovered along the way were unexpected and exciting.

What is (are) your personal favorite episode(s) of Castle?

AWM: Blue Butterfly, Lives of Others, Deadly Game, Target and Hunt, Belly of the Beast, Final Frontier, Still, Cuffed, Always, Knockout, and many others for many other reasons.

DA: Blue Butterfly, 47 Seconds, Undead Again, Still, Belly of the Beat, and also Final Frontier. Same as AWM, there's a lot of other episodes I'm very fond of in addition to those. It's hard to pick favorites.

Why should people who have never seen your show, watch your show?

AWM: Because it's awesome, but you should watch from the beginning. DVDs are available, or you can watch online.

DA: I don't think there's anything else quite like it on television. It's a mystery and a procedural, but at the same time it has tremendous humanity, humor, and heart.

Could we expect a Castle -Derrick Storm Crossover in the future?

AWM: If the Derrick Storm show gets off the ground, I could see Castle wanting to visit set.

For both Marlowe and Amann, what are the best and hardest parts of being executive producers on Castle? For Amann specifically, do you keep 'tabs' on fans through social media, either twitter or Facebook?

DA: We definitely keep track of what the fans are saying about the show. Those reactions and responses are important to us. For me, the best part of being an EP is working with a great group of talented, creative people and being able to deliver episodes of the show that we're all very proud of. The most difficult thing for me is managing the time as we produce 23 episodes of television per season.

Everyone needs to be a little silly sometimes, how do you guys cut loose?

DA: Thanks to AWM, we do have an arcade console video game, which is a great place to procrastinate.

AWM: Often times we end up getting silly about stupid stuff. After a long day, someone will say something meant to be serious, and then nobody can stop laughing. We don't plan the silliness - it finds us.

What are your fave TV shows? And are you the ones coming up with the references to other shows (Firefly, Grey's Anatomy, etc.) or do the actors (Nathan specifically) have input there?

AWM: Our characters live in the popular culture. So often times we throw in references because that's what our characters would be thinking or saying. We also know what a loyal following Nathan has from Firefly. So every now and then, we like to give an Easter Egg to those fans. It's fun to be meta.

DA: Big fan of Orphan Black. And Masters of Sex.

My wife and I started watching Castle last year when reruns were playing on TNT before basketball games started. We quickly fell in love with the show. Thank you very much for producing it. How much of the "big picture" plot was planned in season 1? So far it has felt like it has developed very organically, but was it planned that way from the start?

AWM: If you're talking about Beckett's mother's murder and that mythology, we planted a lot of seeds and had an idea of the direction we wanted to go in. But we were lucky to have the contributions of a great writing staff. A special shout-out has to go to Will Beall for his contributions to that arc. In terms of the Beckett/Castle relationship, the characters had that wonderful spark, we knew where they were going, and it was our job to guide them and enjoy the ride. As for Alexis's boyfriend Pi, no one saw that coming.

Which episode of Castle do you think would shine most if remade for premium cable (HBO, Showtime etc)?

Both: Belly of the Beast

what do u think of the castle fandom madness?

AWM: We think the Castle fans are awesome. Your passion overwhelms us and makes this job worth doing. Even the times when you get mad at us, we know it's because you care about the show and the characters. And that means the world to us.

DA: It's a special privilege to work on a show where the fans are so engaged and passionate. We know our fans and audience are the reason we're here and we really appreciate all your support.

Is anyone from Upstate NY? there are so many town references

AWM: No, but many of our writers are from the East Coast and have spent time in the region.

When you are not writing, are you guys thinking about new ways of including 47 on the show? ;)

DA: I'm not sure what you mean. ;)

Can we do a quick either or?

Coffee or Tea?

Comedy or Drama?

TV or Silver Screen?

Dogs or Cats?

Colour or Black'n'White?

Writing or Reading?

Both: Coffee

AWM: Dramedy DA: Drama

DA: TV AWM: Silver screen

Both: Dogs

Both: Color

Both: Writing

AWM: I also like long walks on the beach.

Many fans were upset about how you (Marlowe) felt Beckett's character needed to be taken down a peg to "equal" Castle, ie marriage faux paux to O'Leary. How does this go toward empowering women? Could you please clarify?

AWM: We never thought it was about "taking her down a peg." We thought it was about showing a character who had a very human moment and discovered something about herself. In terms of being an empowered woman, Beckett's accomplishments speak for themselves. We all have moments in our past that do not define us, but from which we grow.

Are you going to join Twitter, David Amann? :)

DA: (Laughs). Well, since I'm being called out, maybe I have to.

What advice would you give to someone in college working towards a career in the creative world? Since It's common to be told to study something else.

AWM: Be passionate and work on your craft. Find people who are doing what you want to do. Seek their advice. Find a community of like-minded people so you can support each other in your hopes and dreams.