The devil is in the details on Supernatural this season.
After last season dealt with the biggest supernatural themes in existence—God (Rob Benedict) and his sister Amara (Emily Swallow), a.k.a. the Darkness, and the sun exploding, destroying all of life on Earth—the Supernatural team decided to take things down a notch and tell more personal stories about family. First, they brought Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean’s (Jensen Ackles) mother Mary (Samantha Smith) back from the dead to see how the family dynamics would shift between the three living Winchesters. Then, they paired up the most unlikely duo of Castiel (Misha Collins) and Crowley (Mark Sheppard) to hunt down Lucifer now that he was out of the cage and found a viable human vessel in an aging rock god (Rick Springfield).
“I hate saying this in Misha’s presence but I think Supernatural really kicked up a notch in season four with the introduction of angels and demons,” Ackles told Nerdist on set in Vancouver when discussing how the show was dealing with smaller stories this season.
“I like playing that storyline even though this season was kind of about going back to the simple things, going back to family,” Padalecki added. “You know, we just had God and his sister the Darkness, and Lucifer. It was so big at the end of season 11 that we weren’t going to go bigger, so we kind of brought it down without really losing the world … And I like that Supernatural was able to do that and I always love the Lucifer storylines. I always feel a kindred connection, as I’m sure Misha does, having played Lucifer for many episodes.”
Collins added, “You know you’ve created a very strange universe when bringing it back and making it intimate means you’re dealing with small issues like just hunting down Lucifer.”
To which Ackles joked back, “Yeah, we’re really humanizing this season.”
While Sam and Dean have yet to come face-to-face with Lucifer’s new vessel, all that will change in tonight’s episode, “Rock Never Dies.” After Lucifer realizes that as rock star Vince Vincente, he can get his fans to do whatever he wants, he arranges to play a secret VIP concert in order to kill all of them. So Sam, Dean, and Castiel enter the underbelly of the music industry to try to stop him.
“Let’s just say that we didn’t really get a chance to work with Rick much because most of the time it was spent tracking down Lucifer,” Ackles said. Still, the rock star’s casting actually affected the cast’s life outside of the series in a hilarious way.
“I sat next to someone on a plane recently, who was like, ‘Are you…? Oh my god!'” Collins said. “‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, this is so weird. I know who you are, and I’m just so, so excited … because I am such a huge Rick Springfield fan.”
Hearing that story caused Ackles and Padalecki to crack up once again while Collins could only smile and shake his head. Devilish, indeed.
Supernatural airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
Images: The CW
