Warning: Spoilers for the road so far on Supernatural are ahead.

With the threat of the Darkness looming over Season 11 of Supernatural, it’s easy to forget another huge thing that happened in the Season 10 finale: Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) killed Death. That’s not the kind of job you can eliminate without serious consequences, and I doubt Death is easy to replace. Maybe some demons would apply for the job, but unless Lucifer shows up to conduct interviews, how will a new Death be named? These are important questions to answer, but in the meantime, a trailer for Season 11 shows that both Darkness and the lack of Death is taking a toll on the world and on Dean and Sam (Jared Padalecki).

The presence of “O, Death” in the background makes each and every scene of the trailer ominous–yes, even the scenes with the guy in the bunny suit and the clown. If the tune sounds familiar, it was played when we first met Death in Season 5’s “Two Minutes to Midnight” (incidentally, my favorite Supernatural episode so far):

It’s a slightly different mix of Jen Titus’ cover of the folk song.

Since the trailer features Emily Swallow and we know the actress has a recurring role as a villain, maybe she steps up as Death? Or perhaps she’s a human embodiment of Darkness?

In addition to the new faces and Sam and Dean dealing with what looks like more blood than ever before, Castiel (Misha Collins) is looking rough because of Rowena’s curse and Crowley (Mark Sheppard) is impersonating a priest. The stakes appear to be higher than ever, and they sort of have to be given that’s been the pattern over the last ten seasons.

Season 11 of Supernatural premieres on October 7.

Do you think we’ll lose any familiar characters in the upcoming season? Let me know your predictions in the comments.

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HT: TVLine
Image: The CW