Misha Collins Returning To His Best Franchise?
Misha Collins discussed with Jensen Ackles about appearing on The Winchesters as his Supernatural character, the angel Castiel, and while the timing didn't work out, the actor is open to appearing in later seasons.
After ending his 12-season run as the angel Castiel on The CW’s Supernatural, Misha Collins finally returned to the network this past week as Harvey Dent on the series premiere of Gotham Knights. In a recent interview with Deadline, Collins sat down to discuss his Gotham Knights character, as well as the possibility of him making an appearance on the Supernatural prequel series The Winchesters. When probed about a possible appearance in the series, Collins replied:
“We did have conversations about Castiel rejoining the Supernatural universe for the end of this first season of The Winchesters, but for various reasons, it didn’t work out. But Jensen [Ackles] and I are certainly open to it. We’ve had several conversations about it and would love to explore how to best do that in subsequent seasons.”
Gotham Knights portrays Misha Collins in a completely different light than his angelic role in Supernatural, portraying Two-Face, one of the most famous Batman villains of all time. The character was previously put to the screen by actors such as Aaron Eckhart, Tommy Lee Jones, and The Last Of Us star Troy Baker. This iteration of Harvey Dent, Gotham’s upstanding district attorney gone crazed coin-flipping madman, promises to be incredibly different than any previous version, with a much greater breadth of screen time to explore the character’s transformation.
With Misha Collins taking on the reigns of the character, the series will take extensive focus on Harvey Dent’s fall from grace as he struggles to care for the twice orphaned Batman prodigy, Oscar Morgan’s Turner Hayes. The series focuses on a post-Batman Gotham, following the murder of billionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne, with Harvey Dent doing all he can to keep the peace while leading the investigation into who killed Batman. During his interview with Deadline, Collins specified the similarities and differences between working on the two flagship CW programs and the changing landscape of television writ large.
While describing the power a series such as Supernatural carried with it, Misha Collins specified that the creators of that show essentially had carte blanche to do anything they wanted and were nearly guaranteed as many renewals as they’d like at the end of each season. On a new show such as Gotham Knights, premiering during an era of giant corporate media mergers and shifting leadership at DC, that level of assuredness isn’t possible. Collins stated that these artificial limitations cause the writing staff and production team to put their all into each season, ensuring the series works to the best of its ability while delivering on all its promises expeditiously.
Meanwhile, The Winchesters just wrapped up their season 1 finale with episode 13’s Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye on March 7th. The series follows the events of Sam and Dean Winchester‘s parents, John Winchester and Mary Campbell, meeting and falling in love during the 1970s. While Misha Collins has not yet appeared in the prequel, he has expressed interest in reprising his role in the series’ future.
With no word yet on the season two renewal of The Winchesters, we’ll have to wait and see if Misha Collins will get the chance to bring a decades-younger Castiel to life. The CW’s recent sale to Nexstar has made waves with several flagship shows, causing renewal and cancellation news to hang in the air for some time. Of course, the show’s premiere was one of the most watched of the entire season, prompting many viewers to assume that the network will surely renew the series no matter who runs the station.
