Misha Collins tells us his thoughts on when he first came onto Supernatural and the amazing-ness of the show.

Misha Collins, who plays angel Castiel on Supernatural, talks about the family issues of the heavenly realm, as they are still in search of his brother, Lucifer. And he admits to being excited about the smaller scale of the season, as compared to the end-of-the-world scale that was much of last season.

When asked (not so eloquently by me) what he would tell the Misha that first join the cast in 2008, he only had one word:

“‘Run!’,” he exclaims, then adds, “I had no idea what I was getting into with Supernatural. I certainly could not have ever predicted that I would be sitting  here talking about the show going into season 12. I am still the new kid on the show, but it’s been nine years! That’s truly amazing.”

It’s odd, yet at the same time, endearing, that he’s still considered the “new kid,” which would probably be the case another ten years from now if the show were to continue on that long.

At the thought of it, Misha explained the longevity of the series, something that was talked about during their Hall H panel:

“As they announced at the Comic-Con panel, this is the longest running sci-fi show in U.S. television history, and it’s starting to edge out a lot of other long-running dramas for just longest running, ya know—we’re inching toward the top ten of like longest running scripted dramas in the history of television, and we may well make into that very elite quandary of shows which is amazing. It’s also amazing because we have this very intimate interaction with our fans. We go to these conventions, we meet fans all the time, and we get to know them really well, and we’ve actually kind of grown up with fans. There are fans that were coming to conventions when I first started going to Supernatural conventions who were in elementary school and who are now graduating from college, which is amazing. So, we’ve grown up with the fans and the fans have grown up with us, and that’s…very amazing. Very weird! It makes us feel old, but it’s cool.”

Although he does say “amazing” quite a bit, sometimes there’s no other word that summarizes the power of the show and its fans.

It’s obvious he has a love for the show, not only because of the fans, but the work environment. There’s no micromanaging each other, or the crew. They let to writers write and the actors act. But he does point out that they do a pretty good job of not recycling material.

“Obviously, two hundred and something odd hours of television in gets a little bit challenging, but I think we’re managing to do it and do things that are totally unique and unusual, like last seasons episode, ‘Baby,’ where everything was told from the perspective of the car. That was awesome. So, yeah, I think we’re doing a pretty good job.”

He also got to talking about Gishwhes (Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen,) his creation that has become a life changing event for many who’ve participated.

“Gishwhes this year is bigger than ever. There’s more people participating than ever before. I’m working on the list right now. I’m a procrastinator, so I put things off til the last minute. But I’m working on the list right now, trying to make it epic. I think this year is going to be amazing. I’m excited about it. Nervous. Trying to take things off the list that are going to get people killed, because I really want to be careful about that.”

On a side note, in regards to the video, Gishwhes has already started and the hunt ends August 6th, so obviously registration is already closed.

Season 12 of Supernatural premieres Thursday, October 13 at 9pm on the CW.