7.17 interviews/teasers
All the sacrifices made to the CW gods begging for Misha Collins' return to Supernatural paid off!
Collins makes his long-awaited return to the CW hit in tonight's outing, aptly titled "The Born-Again Identity," as Dean (Jensen Ackles), in desperate need of help for his brother, finds out his well-trenched angel friend is alive and well with just one tiny problem: He doesn't remember who he is...or maybe he doesn't want to.
So what's Cas and Dean's big reunion like? And why are they teaming up with a demon? We chatted with Collins and-spoiler alert!-he was pretty freakin' awesome...
First off, we're so excited for your return. Did you know back when Castiel was "killed off" in episode two when, and if, you would be returning?
I did not know. Bob Singer-not the fictitious character, the real producer on the show-told me that he would probably try to bring me back for a few episodes later on in the season. He didn't quite know how many or when; it was very elusive. It was the kind of arrangement that you don't really bank on in this business. It's kind of like, "Eh, that's possible." So, no I didn't, and I was glad to see that I was coming back.
Were you excited when you found out that we'd be seeing a very different version of Castiel when you returned?
Yes. You know, one of the odd things about this show is that [it's] not been stagnant at all. When you're doing lots and lots of episodes and you're playing the same character, it's great because you really get to know the character and it becomes a really fast style and you find subtleties in it. But a lot of the time-this is speculation because I've never done this many episodes on another show-I look at, you know, some of the procedural dramas and I think, "God, I would get really bored!" [But] things are constantly, constantly changing in Supernatural, and maybe even more especially for Castiel than for anyone. It's been really fun to be constantly mixing it up and constantly do something different-going from playing a hippie to playing God to playing a devoted Christian man to playing an angel to playing a fallen angel to playing a drunk angel. There is just so many different permutations. And when Cas comes back, he's one thing. By the end of the first episode that he has returned in, he's another thing. And at the beginning of the following episode, he is yet a different character again.
All right, down to business: What can you actually tell us about your return?
I can tell you that Cas comes back with amnesia and doesn't remember where he's been or what he's done. Dean doesn't immediately just dissuade him of that, and I don't know if you can be dissuaded of ignorance, but if you can, Dean doesn't right away. And for whatever reason, maybe somewhere in his [subconscious], Cas doesn't seem to want to know what his past is. He doesn't seem to be desperate to figure it out; he's more accepting than they are. That's where things start off, and a whole bunch of other s--t happens.
Obviously, fans have been waiting to see Dean and Castiel reunited for quite some time. What are the interactions between them like in the beginning?
It's a little guarded. Cas doesn't know Dean from Adam, but Dean is certainly a little bit guarded and wary, and I think Cas is, too, because Dean seems like possibly a loose cannon.
It seems like Dean and Castiel will be spending some time with Meg...
It's funny because I got in trouble in the end of season six and the beginning of season seven for having made deals with the devil, essentially, but once again, they're kind of partnering me with a demon. I seem to have forgotten their warning against doing that sort of thing. It really seemed a little unfair to me, but yes, it seems like Meg (Rachel Miner) is an ally at this point. Of course, it's not a real easy partnership. There's definite suspicion and caution on everyone's part, and no one really knows what each other's motives are. Oh, let's just say Sam and Dean don't know what Meg's motives are.
With this "new" version of Cas, are you still going to provide some comic relief?
Yup! I'm going to give you a big spoiler that I haven't told anyone. This might be sort of ruining the build-up to the season finale, but Cas does a full-on fart joke in the second episode I was in. The producers are going to kill me-I'm going to get a call later from the CW!
They'll probably just kill you again and then bring you back...again. Are you allowed to say if your three episodes are consecutive or spread out throughout the rest of the season?
I don't know what I'm allowed to say, but I'll just say it anyways: They are not necessarily consecutive.
As you've said, you have already done a lot with Castiel, but is there one thing you'd really like to see happen with the character?
The producers really have never said to me if this is true, but I kind of think the character is a little bit based on Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire character Cassiel, who was an angel. It's a really cool movie, and it's based on a German poet's work. In that, the angel falls and becomes human, but enjoys becoming human and gets to sort of relish the joy of mortality. The only side of that that Cas has ever seen is he lost his angelic powers for a while and sort of felt the pain and suffering of humanity. For some reason I think it'd be really cool to see Cas sort of fall and be human again. I just want one f--king nice thing to happen to the guy.
Supernatural airs tonight at 9 p.m. on the CW.
Source
‘SUPERNATURAL’: LESS ANGST NEXT SEASON?
Before you get in a tizzy, there’s no official word on an eighth season of Supernatural. But since I’m a positive thinker by nature, when I got a chance to chat with executive producer Bob Singer last week, I asked what his vision would be for the next season if the show was lucky enough to nail one down. The answer, he said, will obviously be largely influenced by where we leave off this season. “I think you’ll see coming up that Sam’s Lucifer problem certainly lessens,” he said. “That carried a lot water this year. Jared really had the brunt of the emotional story. And I think going into next year - and, God, we haven’t talked about this - but just in my opinion, I think we’d be well served to get back to where this whole thing started - as we used to say, saving people and killing things.”
Much of the show’s current season has been centered - with only small deviations - on the leviathan storyline that was introduced at the beginning of the season. Along the way, that storyline has given birth to smaller emotional arcs for the characters, particularly with regards to Sam’s broken noodle and a string of heart-wrenching deaths. “[I’d like to] make it a good, kinda wild western yarn and try to leave the angst behind,” Singer said. “I mean, there’s always going to be angst on this show, but I think we’ve kinda wrung it out a lot this year. So we might lighten it up a tad next year.”
And what of word on the chances of another season? Singer said that while “indications are that we will get picked up…we kind of leave options for ourselves [story-wise]. It would be nice if we heard sooner than later.”
Source
Need a few more teases about SUPERNATURAL to make the wait a little less painful? I talked with showrunner Sera Gamble to see what she could share about what’s ahead…
We know Sam winds up institutionalized in tonight’s episode, but how dark does he really get?
Sera Gamble: It’s hard for Sam, but fun for us to watch. Mental hospitals are just such a fun, juicy place for us to go on this show. Just chock full of classic horror movie tropes. I think that we find them to be terrifying places.
Given that you wrote the episode, was there anything you wanted to get in that for one reason or another you couldn’t?
SG: I have to say, I always watch the director’s cut of the episode and see things I would have done differently. I’ve written something like 20 episodes of this show and that never really changes. I think for me, that’s part of being a writer. [Laughs] Going, “Wait, if I just had a do-over, I would have done that thing totally differently.” I’m still waiting for the time where I write a script and I don’t want to change something about it. But this script is definitely chock-full of ideas. [Director] Bob [Singer] brought a lot to the table and the writers in the room were pretty excited about it, so we all worked together on this one.
Good to know. What can you say about Misha Collins’ return?
SG: We kind of want to say as little as possible because we know that fans are excited about it, and we want them to be as surprised as possible and to enjoy his return as much as possible. I can say that the way Misha returns and the way that we see him is kind of new and different. And we’ve taken him in a bit of a new direction.
I know you don’t want to say too much about the circumstances surrounding who Misha is playing, but with this new character, will there still be hints to the familiar dynamic Castiel had with both Dean and Sam for the fans to look forward to? Or will they be completely starting from scratch?
SG: Um, we had such a pile of good stuff to draw from…we wouldn’t just throw Misha into something random from scratch. There’s too much great history to draw from. And there’s just too much good stuff to throw at him and Dean. I think when you see the episode, it makes good emotional sense why we made the choices that we did for the character.
Misha is set for 3 episodes as of now. Is there a character arc resolution, or is there the possibility for him to return if the show was to get picked up for an eighth season?
SG: I hope it feels like a character arc, but it’s a little bit of both. There’s resolution and there’s also…we’ve left it enough open-ended that there will hopefully be the possibility of seeing Misha again in season 8.
Fair enough. Moving on to the season-long arc, what can you say about the Leviathans’ role in the rest of the season?
SG: Sam and Dean will be following some specific leads. And as they get closer and as the heat turns up, it becomes about - obviously the stakes are very high for them, and they’re continually dogged by this frustration by how alone they feel in this. They really have lost so much of their support system that they relied on, even more than they knew over the past few seasons - notably Castiel and Bobby. And so I think every time they make a little bit of an advance, it’s bittersweet for them. And every time they’re stuck, they’re extra frustrated because they would have called Bobby. Emotionally, I think that’s very much underneath the thrust of the upcoming episodes in terms of the Leviathans.
At this point, besides each other, what do they have left to lose? As you noted, they’ve lost Bobby, they’ve lost Castiel, they’ve lost their father and countless amounts of allies, so does that change the stakes of the writing?
SG: Oh, we manage to dig up other stuff for them to lose, don’t you worry! We always manage to find stuff to throw at them.
Source