Penny Johnson Jerald, Castle

There's a new bosslady on ABC's Castle.



Former 24 and The Larry Sanders Show star Penny Johnson Jerald will join the cast as the new captain of the 12th Precinct, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively. Jerald will play Victoria Gates, a career-minded cop who spent much of her early career in Internal Affairs. As we previously reported, she will initially be more interested in getting noticed by her superiors and climbing the NYPD's ranks than doing any real police work.

Exclusive Castle postmortem: Creator on [SPOILER!]'s death and Castle and Beckett's future

Known as "Iron Gates," she's alo going to be a bit tougher on our team, especially Castle ( Nathan Fillion

) and Beckett ( Stana Katic ). "Everybody's getting along really well in the precinct, and we think there can be a little more conflict," creator and executive producer Andrew W. Marlowe told TVGuide.com in May . "We think it's interesting to grow Beckett and Castle by having somebody who ... may not look as favorably on the Castle-Beckett relationship."Johnson's casting follows the explosive Season 3 finale, during which former Capt. Roy Montgomery ( Ruben Santiago-Hudson ) was revealed to be one of the cops involved in a mob kidnapping that ultimately led to the murder of Beckett's mother. Montgomery then gave his own life to take down a hit man who was trying to keep Beckett from investigating any further.Johnson is perhaps best known for her work as Sherry Palmer, the ruthless ex-wife of Dennis Haysbert's President David Palmer on 24. She also starred on HBO's The Larry Sanders Show as Larry's personal assistant Betsy Barnes and has recurred on such series as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine October Road and NCIS.

Check out photos of the Castle cast



Castle returns on Monday, Sept. 19 at 10/9c on ABC.



What do you think of the casting? Do you think she'll stand in the way of Castle and Beckett being together?