Get ready for The Fall. The new promo poster for season nine of "Supernatural" hints that viewers should be ready to anticipate "The Fall"-- and they don't mean autumn.
The moody poster shows Dean (Jensen Ackles), Sam (Jared Padalecki), Castiel (Misha Collins) and Crowley (Mark Sheppard) standing by a church underneath a stormy sky that is lit up with angels falling from heaven. The poster includes the tagline: "Prepare For The Fall." The new season will explore what the world is like after the heavenly creatures have fallen into mortal life.
New photos also show the return of Bobby (Jim Beaver), as well as the introduction of the fallen warrior angel Ezekiel, played by Tahmoh Penikett ("Battlestar Galactica"). In the season premiere, Sam lies in the hospital in a coma, leaving the elder Winchester feeling hopeless. Yet, the new photos show Ezekiel laying his hand on Sam. Does Ezekiel save Sam? A sneak preview for the new season showed that Dean will literally get into Sam's head to try and save him. Is Ezekiel the one who allows Dean to get into his comatose brother's mind?
Although fans won't find out the answers till the season's October premiere, fans can know for sure that a new character is entering the picture as a new love interest for the recently humanized Castiel.
Shannon Lucio, who appeared on the teen soap "The O.C.," will guest star as fallen angel Castiel's love interest, TVLine confirms. Lucio also appears in the premiere episode of ABC's "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Lucio's character will be named April Kelly, and will debut in the third episode of season nine, airing October 22.
This season, Castiel will be forced to adapt to life as a mortal after his transformation last season from angel to human. At Comic-Con, Collins joked about the fallen angel adapting to human life, and pointed out that he can no longer aid the Winchester brothers as he previously did. He joked that "now he [Castiel] can pop in and basically fold laundry. There's a shift in the dynamic there in terms of how he can be utilized by the brothers. For Castiel's arc, it's going to be an immensely rich terrain to explore."
Executive producer Jeremy Carver commented on how the upcoming season will deal with the aftermath of last season's fallen angels. "A world full of fallen angels is pretty much a free-for-all," Carver said.
"We're going to see it's not one unified body," he added. "We've got lots of angels out there with lots of different agendas. Many are feelings lost and vengeful. A world of fallen angels is a dirty, bloody, scary and, in some ways, a very human world."
The season nine premiere airs on The CW on October 8 at 9 p.m.