Nathan Fillion, Martin Short to guest star on 'Modern Family'

"Castle" star Nathan Fillion and "Maya and Marty's" Martin Short will visit "Modern Family" in Season 8, Variety has confirmed. Executive producer Steve Levitan revealed the casting at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, where he was participating in a panel with showrunners for other ABC comedies.

Fillion — whose veteran ABC procedural "Castle" was cancelled in May after eight seasons — will play Rainer Shine, a local weatherman who becomes entangled with the Dunphy family. Short, who is also set to appear in NBC's "Hairspray Live," will guest star in episode two of the upcoming season as promotional maven Merv Schechter.

During the panel, it was also revealed that sophomore comedy "The Real O'Neals" will tackle a storyline involving a bakery refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, which will be presented from the point of view of 16-year-old protagonist Kenny (Noah Galvin), who will struggle to reconcile his love for the bakery's cupcakes with his desire for equality.

RELATED: See photos of Martin Short with his late wife:

"Real O'Neals" showrunner Casey Johnson also addressed the controversy that resulted from an interview Galvin gave in which he criticized fellow actors Colton Haynes and Eric Stonestreet, dismissing rumors that ABC had threatened to cut the episode order of the second season as a result.

"That part of that story is not true, there wasn't any threat to cut our order or anything like that. ABC's been incredibly supportive," she noted. "There wasn't much going on behind the scenes. The article came out, Noah regretted what he said and apologized very quickly. I think we've all said things we wish we hadn't. We all got back to work ... We were busy on Season 2, which we're all super excited about. We're three days into shooting. It's all good."

Watch a recent clip from "Modern Family" below: