Misha Collins Almost Actually Died His Last Day Shooting Supernatural

In last Thursday's episode of Supernatural, the Lord's Angel Castiel (Misha Collins) met his final fate after an emotional declaration of love for Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles). That final shooting day became one of the most intense days of Collins' life, made even more so because he almost died in real life the same night.

"That night of shooting was really, really emotional," he says in this just-posted clip. "It was my last day of shooting on Supernatural. It was also right before production got shut down because of COVID, and we had a convention that night where we had to jump on a plane to get to Las Vegas.... So, we had a late night of shooting, and we all said goodbye to Castiel, I said goodbye to the crew, and it was a lot. It was a lot. The scene was very emotional and people were crying on set... but there were also tears on set because everybody was saying goodbye."

Leaving at the end of a show that's been running for 15 seasons right after filming a tragic death scene would be a raw enough feeling for any actor, but then came the near-death experience. "Then they had chartered a flight for us because we had a very tight window to get to the convention and it was a late night of shooting... and we were about ten minutes into the flight when there was a huge explosion and a rattling sound and a flash of light, and one of the engines had literally exploded — like twisted, gnarled metal — and there was a shuddering and shrieking of the airplane, and we banked around and we flew back to Vancouver, and they had, I don't know, five or six fire engines waiting for us on the tarmac, and as we were coming back in, the plane was shuddering and there was this screaming sound coming off the wings, and as we got close to cell reception, we all texted 'tell the kids I love them,' because we didn't know if we were going to live."

"That night was just so unbelievably fraught with emotion," Collins summed up. "Saying goodbye to Castiel, saying goodbye to the crew, and then also literally saying goodbye to our families. It was super, super intense. So that night really stands out to me."

Supernatural airs Thursdays at 8:00 PM ET on The CW but only for the next two weeks as it nears its series finale. 

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Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.