Sad news for “Castle” fans. Weeks after Stana Katic confirmed she was leaving the ABC crime drama, the network announced the show has been canceled. That means the Season 8 finale, which airs Monday, will actually be the series finale, and fans may be in for a grim ending.

As previously reported, “Castle” showrunners prepared two versions of the finale — one that would end in a cliffhanger and set things up for Season 9 and another one that would nicely tie up the entire series.

“If we hear that we’re not coming back, we have shot something that we can put at the end of the episode as a way to put a button on everything,” co-showrunner Alexi Hawley previously told Entertainment Weekly. “Obviously that would be a bad thing because it would mean no more. We did it in order to try to protect the fans, because you can’t end the series on a cliffhanger.”

Terence Paul White, who also serves as co-showrunner, promised there will be no “loose ends” and said fans will finally get answers to all their burning questions. “All mysteries from previous years will be wrapped up,” he told the outlet. “We really gave them a dynamic episode that’s scary, it’s funny, and it’s emotional. That’s the finale — we figured we’d go big.”

A synopsis for the May 16 finale, titled “Crossfire,” teases that Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Katic) will be on the hunt for LokSat but the mission puts their case and their lives in “jeopardy.” There also have been reports Beckett may die.

In a promo for the episode, Beckett and Castle are seen in a shootout and realize they’ve been set up. Mr. Flyn (Jed Rees) is also seen holding Castle hostage and tells him: “Kate Beckett is going to be dead by the end of the night, and there is nothing you can do about it.”

The “Castle” series finale will air Monday at 10 p.m. EDT on ABC.

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