'Castle' Stars Jon Huertas and Seamus Dever Talk Season 8, Give Us the Definition of Love

Get ready to see a whole lot more of Seamus Dever and Jon Huertas. The Castle co-stars, who play Dets. Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito on the ABC police procedural, are not only more in the forefront for the show’s upcoming eighth season but they’re also making beautiful music together off the Castle set.

Yahoo TV caught up with this bromantic duo ahead of the Castle premiere to get the scoop on what fans can expect for the 12th Precinct this season, as well as more on the new project that’s got these real-life besties together in a different studio.

Season 7 wrapped in a way that could have served as a series finale, but thankfully it wasn’t. What would you say the theme is for Season 8?
Huertas: I think the theme for Season 8 is starting over. Changes. That would be the theme, I think, not only storywise but also for us as a production. You know we’ve got a couple of new showrunners this year, so the show, I think, it’s kind of getting like a rebirth.

Dever: Kind of like a reset. It’s starting fresh but taking what people already know and building upon it. So it’s kind of got a nice new energy that’s a lot of fun to be around. Reinvention. I like that. I’m going to use that for every interview from now on.

Where do things pick up for Ryan and Esposito in the two-episode premiere?
Dever: Well, basically, we get a lot more responsibilities around the precinct because there’s sort of some shuffling around of the personnel. I’m not going to give any of the spoilers. They probably know… they’re not going to spoil, right, Jon? So Beckett is a captain now. I don’t know if you knew that — did I spoil anything? So since Beckett is the captain, Ryan and Esposito have a lot more caseload, and they’re also thinking about what this means for their life. So they’re thinking about taking the sergeants’ exam, they are thinking about moving up the ladder of the police chain. So the team is basically a little bit different than it was before, where we had all four of us around. It’s a lot more heavy on Ryan and Esposito doing more things with the case, because now Beckett has a lot more responsibilities back at the precinct.

Huertas: Yeah, like where every episode there is usually a murder we have to investigate, now with Beckett being the captain, she is responsible for every detective in the precinct and every murder in the precinct in our homicide division. You pretty much only see Ryan and Esposito on crime scenes and us taking point on those investigations, so that’s going to be a little bit different and a change for Ryan and Esposito and how each one of them kind of wants to grow in their positions. Seamus mentioned the sergeants’ exam, that’s going to be a storyline, point, you might see this year.

There’s been a lot of talk that the new showrunners, Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter, are shaking things up. Can you tease any other changes that we can expect to see in the new season?
Huertas: Well, I think we’re going to see a little bit more of Castle’s daughter, Alexis, working this season. They’re giving her a little bit more responsibility because now she’s an adult, a full-fledged adult. Molly Quinn started out at 14. We’ve been on air for eight seasons, and now she’s 21, 22. So she’s a full-grown person.

Dever: That whole Castle daughter living at college stuff, that’s kind of past that now. They wanted to give her more to do on the show as kind of a fun father-daughter team that they have.

Huertas: So, yeah, that’s how they’re shaking it up. They’ve got Ryan and Esposito taking point on all these murderers, and now Beckett’s now a captain, so Castle’s partner is now his daughter, if you will. So that’s how they’re shaking things up. I think it will definitely shake things up with each character’s relationship with the other characters too. And I think that goes back to our theme as a reinvention. The show was starting to get kind of very familiar, repetitive. The only way to keep the audience interested and coming back to see what is going to happen next is for them to shake things up.

Related: ‘Castle’ Cast Hams It Up in DVD Gag Reel

Dever: I think the audience is kind of craving something other than just the same old same old, so it’s nice. Again, I go back to the idea of energy. It’s a nice new energy, and there’s some excitement. It’s crazy, in Season 8 of a show, we have new stuff going down the line, so it’s kind of fun for us as actors to be around.

What would you say is your characters’ best bromance moment?
Huertas: Actually, I think our best bromance moment hasn’t been seen yet. It’s in Season 8, Episode 2 [laughs]. Yeah, it’s coming up, and I think it is in Episode 1 or 2. It’s actually the season premiere, my favorite bromance moment, so people haven’t seen it yet. It shows true teamwork between the two characters in a heightened situation.

Dever: I think it’s pretty good, and people are gonna be excited about it. Probably the one that always sticks out in my mind is the Season 6 “Under Fire” episode, the one where we’re trapped in a burning building. There was some real honesty and teamwork happening there, and some desperate stuff. But in the midst of it, there was some laughter and some connection, and I think that’s probably the one that sticks out in my mind that kind of sums up a lot about Esposito and Ryan’s relationship. Even when they look like they’re in the face of certain doom, they still have a laugh together. So that moment always sticks out to me.

Huertas: And I agree with him on that. I knew he was probably gonna say that, so I didn’t want to say that. I let him have that. That’s a real bromance right there!

Tell us about your “Definition of Love” music video for the Season 7 DVD. [Dever and Huertas recorded a music video that features exclusive footage of Ryan and Esposito’s wedding tribute song for Castle and Beckett].
Dever: We [kept] it under wraps for months. I think that video is just the beginning of something that is going to be pretty fun for the fans, and it’s definitely been fun for us, because Jon and I are working on an album right now. Our group is called Shay-Jean. Eleven awesome songs. And they’re a lot of fun. They’re all in that same vein, like R&B with a comic edge to it. A little tongue-in-cheek.

Huertas: We’re actually on our way to the studio right after this interview to record.

Dever: Yeah, we have some work.

Huertas: Our next single will probably drop in November. “Definition of Love” is our first single, and you saw the video, which will be released exclusively on DVD. The single will be released through Sony U.S. Latin, iTunes, Walmart — a full digital distribution with some copies printed up.

Is there anything else you want to tell us about Castle Season 8?
Dever: I know we’re gonna get a lot of fans that want it to be the same old same old as we have in the past. But I am going to encourage the fans to have some patience, because I think they’re going to like where we end up. I think they’re going to be challenged a little bit by where we go but that in the end they’re gonna feel like it’s worth the journey.

Huertas: I think the fans are going to feel reinvigorated with the show. If any of the fans kind of thought, I don’t know if this show still working,” I think after this season they’re gonna see that it’s working even better. Maybe at the end of this season, there won’t be such a lingering question on whether or not we would be able to do a Season 9. So we’re excited, and we want the fans to be excited.

Dever: We’re happy because Espo and Ryan are in the forefront now, which is something we’ve been asking for years now. It’s actually happening now, which is a great thing for us. It feels fun to go to work every day now.

Castle returns for Season 8 on Monday, Sept. 28 at 10 p.m. on ABC.