Coverage of the Supernatural press room at San Diego Comic-Con would not be complete without an interview with Misha Collins. During a roundtable interview, I had a chance to speak to Collins about what’s in store for Castiel in the upcoming eighth season of Supernatural. Read on for what the actor had to say about his character, and be sure to check out the video below because Jensen Ackles stopped by to stroke Misha’s face.
Castiel vanished at the end of last season. Will he be back? And when? Collins confirmed that Castiel will be back pretty early on, in episode 2. “That is flashback Purgatory, but you will see Castiel.”
Will we see Castiel deal further with the repercussions of healing Sam? Is his psyche still damaged? Collins: “I think that he’s kind of in a survival mode in Purgatory so he’s dealing with, um, yeah … the issues that he’s dealing with … the adrenaline is forcing him to be a little saner. […] This is actually conjecture partly on my part, but yes, he’s more sane. There may be further explanation as to why that is, but I that it’s probably primarily that he’s forced to be.” Collins said that had a fun time losing his marbles on set. “It took a minute to find its footing because Ben [Edlund] and I came to the set with widely different ideas of how it was gonna go.”
How insane were Ben Edlund’s ideas? Collins: “Well, all of Ben’s ideas … I mean, he’s truly pathologically insane. Ben has an amazing mind. I could just watch him like a television show for hours.” Since Edlund has written some really important Castiel episodes, does Collins feel like the two of them are in sync? Or do they go head to head? “Oh no, we don’t go head to head. We kind of … no, I love working with him. He’s fun. And he’s also very extemporaneous on set and playful with it. It’s interesting because usually the writer … in almost every other instance actually, the writer is not up there and is not directing. So, we get the script—the script is delivered to both the director and the actor—and we have to just do exactly what’s on the page, or get into this whole rigamarole of calling back to L.A and can we change something. But for the most part, it’s not changed. But when Ben comes up, directing a script that he’s written, he’s much less precious with the dialogue and for him it’s still a creative process that’s unfurling and he’s still writing and tweaking and so there’s a more playful quality with him. And also, Ben is insane. So, um, that makes it a fun romp too.” Then a reporter told him that the day before this interview, Edlund was on record saying that Castiel was his favorite character to write. Collins: “I assume that’s true of all the writers, but whatever.”
The angels will come back into play this season. Does Collins know how that will affect Cas? Yes, and it is not how he expected. He has broad brush season arc ideas of what’s in store and he feels good about it. “There’s always a bit of trepidation when you’re at the beginning of the season talking to the showrunner. […] Because you don’t know. You could be in a coma for the entire time or you just don’t know what they’re thinking. There have been a lot of curveballs for Cas’s storyline over the last several years, so I was relieved when he told me what it was.”
There have been a lot of versions of Castiel over the past few seasons. Which one will we see in season 8? “More of old Cas, I think. […] We’re not pressing hard reset and erasing his memory and going from there. He still has all of his past experiences, so he’s not quite as naïve as when he stepped off the boat, but he’s more of the old Cas.”
Will the time in Purgatory repair the relationship with Cas and Dean? Is it possible to repair those relationships between Cas and the Winchesters after the events of the past 2 seasons? “It’s possible. I actually don’t know how that’s gonna play out.”
Does Collins ever disagree with the direction that the writers are taking Castiel’s character, and does he have any say? “No, I don’t have any say. And I have had moments where I felt like I disagreed with some[thing]. There have been moments in the scripts and actually, it’s usually been when Cas is playing the fish-out-of-water comic foil, where I’ll read something and think, ‘Guys, this is bullshit!’ All of the sudden Cas doesn’t understand this thing that he’s been dealing with? There have been a lot of instances where he’s suddenly such a fish-out-of-water for comic relief that didn’t quite make sense and weren’t quite consistent with the character thus far. But that’s been the primary thing for me. And it’s not a lot, but every once in awhile it’s like ‘Uh, we’re kind of forcing it here. This isn’t quite …’” Has he voiced his opinion? “I have. And I’ll get ‘Duly noted. So go do it.’”
And here are some bonus screencaps for your amusement:
Jensen Ackles decided to stop by our table and stroke Misha’s face. Just regular pressroom stuff. Same old, same old.
Priceless.
Photo and Video by Lucia Giusti, Copyright © 2012 TheTelevixen.com
Lucia is a Ph.D. Candidate in History, living in southern California. When she’s not reading about imperial women in ancient Rome, she’s probably watching television. Or writing about television on her blog, 
