While Sam and Dean Winchester remain at the core of Supernatural, there are certainly a handful of characters that you couldn’t imagine the show without. Undoubtedly, one of those would have to be Castiel, who’s been a fixture since debuting way back in the season 4 premiere. Wonderfully brought to life by the vastly talented Misha Collins, we’ve seen the fan favorite angel played in so many different ways that we’re starting to lose count.
But when season 12’s finale seemingly did a housecleaning by killing off Rowena, Crowley and even Cas himself, we admittedly felt a little worried. Then again, this series always finds a way to bring back characters and we imagine all involved will figure out yet another way for Collins to put a new spin on his respective role.
Now, we do know that Castiel will be involved in the animated crossover with Scooby-Doo later this season, but we’re expecting a proper return before then. Still, we advise not holding your breath because showrunner Andrew Dabb recently told Variety that he and his fellow writers plan on letting the Winchesters go at it alone for a bit:
“[He will not suddenly pop up] midway through episode one. Dean, and Jack to a great extent, had a great bond with Castiel, and they have to marinate a little bit and feel the loss. So even when he makes his triumphant return as a changed character, they’ll have an even bigger reaction.”
Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing how they’ll bring back Castiel because, let’s not forget, death by angel sword is permanent, and that’s how Lucifer vanquished him. Naturally, I’m assuming that we’ll be meeting his doppelganger from the recently introduced alternate universe, but we won’t know for sure until it’s showtime.
Supernatural returns for its thirteenth season on Thursday, October 12 on The CW.