Character · Supernatural
Castiel
An angel sent as Heaven's soldier who became, one costly choice at a time, a being with a will of his own.
Spoilers for Supernatural seasons 4 to 15, including the final episode.
Facts in one place
- Played by
- Misha Collins
- First episode
- Season 4, episode 1, 18 September 2008
- Seasons
- 4 to 15
- What he is
- An angel of the rank of seraph
- Best known for
- Raising Dean Winchester from Hell
- His vessel
- Jimmy Novak, a man of deep faith who agreed to carry him
- His father, in the story
- God, as Chuck Shurley
- Killed by him
- The archangel Raphael, at the end of season 6
- Human for a time
- About three months, after Metatron took his grace
- Lucifer's vessel
- For part of season 11
- Escaped the Empty
- In season 13, the first being ever to do so
- Taken by the Empty
- Season 15, episode 18 (2020)
- At the end
- Brought back by Jack to help remake Heaven
Why did the show bring Castiel in?
To open Heaven to the story. Until season 4 the brothers had never met an angel, and the fourth season begins with Castiel as the angel who has raised Dean Winchester out of Hell on orders from above. The character was built to bring Christian theology into a show that had mostly drawn on folklore, and he starts out as Heaven's idea of a soldier: devoted to God, short on feeling, and baffled by the humans he has been sent among.
The interest of the character is how far he travels from that start. Time with the brothers, and what he learns about God's silence and his own siblings' plans, wear the obedience away and leave a will of his own in its place. The change is expensive: he loses his standing in Heaven, his power, and more than once his life, and the show uses each loss to ask what free choice costs a being who was made to obey.
How did he become the angel who rebels?
By choosing the brothers over his orders. In season 4 he learns that some angels want Lucifer freed, refuses to join them, and in the end turns on Heaven outright, for which the archangel Raphael destroys him. God brings him back, and when the Apocalypse is averted at the end of season 5 he is raised again, this time as a seraph. The pattern holds for the rest of the run: Castiel keeps dying for his choices and keeps returning, which is why angels and demons alike come to know him as the angel who broke Heaven's rules to stand with people.
Why did he take the souls of Purgatory?
To win a war he believed he was losing. In season 6 Castiel leads one side of a civil war in Heaven to stop Raphael restarting the Apocalypse, and, certain no demon can outplay him, he makes a pact with Crowley to open Purgatory and claim the souls inside. By the end of that season he has betrayed Crowley, taken every soul for himself, killed Raphael with their power and proclaimed himself the new God; early in season 7 the Leviathans hidden among those souls take him over.
It is the clearest case of the show's favourite tragedy, a good intention ruined by pride, and the series does not let him off. The Leviathans' year on Earth, Bobby Singer's death among its costs, traces straight back to his decision, and the guilt he carries afterwards shapes the quieter, more doubtful angel of the later seasons, one who would rather earn trust than demand obedience.
Who is Jimmy Novak, and why does the vessel matter?
Jimmy Novak is the man whose body Castiel wears, and the show is unusually careful about him. A devout husband and father who had prayed for years to be of use, Jimmy agreed to carry the angel, and the cost to him and his family is written into season 4: they lose him, and when Castiel briefly takes his daughter Claire instead, a dying Jimmy asks the angel to come back into him so that she can be free. After that the face on screen is Jimmy's and the person inside is Castiel, and Misha Collins plays both.
What happens to Castiel at the end?
He finds the happiness that was always going to cost him. Killed by Lucifer at the end of season 12, Castiel wakes in the Empty, the sleeping place of dead angels and demons, and forces his way out in season 13, the first being ever to escape it. In season 14 he trades his own future to the realm's ruler, the Shadow, to save Jack, on the condition that it may take him only once he is truly happy. In season 15, episode 18 the condition is met, through his love for Dean, and the Empty claims him.
The show does not leave him there. In the final episode Dean learns that Jack, now in God's place, has brought Castiel back to help remake Heaven. The arc completes the character's long journey from soldier to free being: an angel made to obey ends the series having chosen what he wanted and paid for it, and the story answers by giving him a part in building something better.
Questions people also ask
Who plays Castiel in Supernatural?
Misha Collins, from the first episode of season 4 to the final season. Collins also plays Jimmy Novak, the man of faith whose body Castiel uses as his vessel, so the actor is playing both the angel and his host.
What rank of angel is Castiel in Supernatural?
He is a seraph. Castiel begins as an ordinary angel of the Lord and is raised to that rank when God brings him back after the Apocalypse is averted at the end of season 5.
Who is Jimmy Novak in Supernatural?
Castiel's vessel: a family man of deep religious faith who longed to be of service and agreed to carry the angel. Jimmy loses his family life to it, and his body, played by Misha Collins like Castiel himself, is the one the angel wears on screen.
Sources, last checked 21 October 2026
- Castiel (Wikidata), Wikidata Q2453550: free to reuse (CC0).
- Supernatural (television series) (Wikidata), Wikidata Q130585: free to reuse (CC0).
- Supernatural, season 4, episode 1 (The CW, 2008): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Wikidata Q2453550; Wikipedia, Castiel (Supernatural), revision 1379659552; Wikipedia, Supernatural season 4, revision 1351998288; TVmaze episode 19:4:1.
- Supernatural, seasons 4 to 15, on Castiel (The CW): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Supernatural Wiki, Castiel, revision 458285; Supernatural Wiki, Jimmy Novak, revision 456652; Wikipedia, Castiel (Supernatural), revision 1379659552.
- Supernatural, season 4 (The CW, 2008): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Wikipedia, Supernatural season 4, revision 1351998288; Supernatural Wiki, Lilith, revision 453829; Wikipedia, Sam Winchester, revision 1364557034.
- Raphael (Supernatural) (Wikidata), Wikidata Q1245155: free to reuse (CC0).
- Supernatural, season 6 (The CW, 2010): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Wikipedia, Supernatural season 6, revision 1354759206; Wikipedia, Dean Winchester, revision 1359933271; Supernatural Wiki, Alpha Vampire, revision 458097; Supernatural Wiki, Castiel, revision 458285; Supernatural Wiki, Leviathans, revision 456438; Supernatural Wiki, Sam Winchester, revision 457885.
- Supernatural, season 9 (The CW, 2013): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Wikipedia, Supernatural season 9, revision 1356074246; Supernatural Wiki, Castiel, revision 458285; Supernatural Wiki, Knights of Hell, revision 457267; Supernatural Wiki, Mark of Cain, revision 453125; Wikipedia, Dean Winchester, revision 1359933271.
- Supernatural, season 11 (The CW, 2015): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Wikipedia, Supernatural season 11, revision 1352007236; Supernatural Wiki, Amara, revision 457352; Supernatural Wiki, God, revision 458185; Supernatural Wiki, The Empty, revision 458286; Supernatural Wiki, Castiel, revision 458285.
- Supernatural, season 13 (The CW, 2017): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Wikipedia, Supernatural season 13, revision 1376204063; Supernatural Wiki, The Empty, revision 458286; Supernatural Wiki, Castiel, revision 458285.
- Supernatural, season 15, episode 18 (The CW, 2020): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Supernatural Wiki, The Empty, revision 458286; Supernatural Wiki, Castiel, revision 458285; Wikipedia, List of Supernatural and The Winchesters characters, revision 1371240734; TVmaze episode 19:15:18.
- Supernatural, season 15, episode 20 (The CW, 2020): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Supernatural Wiki, Dean Winchester, revision 457799; Supernatural Wiki, Sam Winchester, revision 457885; Supernatural Wiki, Impala, revision 457872; Supernatural Wiki, The Empty, revision 458286; Wikipedia, Supernatural season 15, revision 1379342382; TVmaze episode 19:15:20.
- Supernatural, season 5 (The CW, 2009): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Wikipedia, Supernatural season 5, revision 1373792682; Supernatural Wiki, Sam Winchester, revision 457885; Supernatural Wiki, Crowley, revision 457498; Supernatural Wiki, King of Hell, revision 445638; Supernatural Wiki, Princes of Hell, revision 452226.
- Supernatural, seasons 1 to 15, on the Leviathans (The WB and The CW): cited for facts only; nothing reproduced. Located and checked via Supernatural Wiki, Leviathans, revision 456438; Supernatural Wiki, Dick Roman, revision 456437.
Drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed above. See a mistake? Tell us in the Supernatural forum room.
Fan-made, and unofficial
An unofficial fan tribute, made for fun. This page names Supernatural and its characters and facts under nominative fair use; it reproduces no dialogue, prose, lyric or image, and it is non-commercial. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Warner Bros. Television, The CW, or any official rights holder of Supernatural.
Nothing here reproduces the works themselves: no dialogue, no script text, no lyric, no episode summary, and no still, screenshot, logo or artwork.
These fan pages are separate from Iron Realms, the strategy game the rest of this site is about. Neither is affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Warner Bros. Television, The CW, or any official rights holder of Supernatural.