‘Supernatural’ season 9 spoilers: Shannon Lucio to romance Misha Collins’ Castiel as April Kelly

Are you ready to read some controversial “Supernatural” casting news? We’re at least judging it to be controversial based on some of the reaction to the scoop online.

According to a new report from TVLine, Shannon Lucio of “The O.C.” fame has been booked for some sort of story as April Kelly, a potential love interest for Misha Collins’ fallen angel Castiel. She is going to make her first appearance on the show starting with the October 22 episode (the third this season), and it is certainly possible that she could appear in several more beyond that depending on where the story leads. (Typically, “Supernatural” love interests do not have a habit of staying around for very long.)

We are hardly surprised to hear about a new character entering the fold, largely thanks to the news that we already heard about Castiel learning to do all sorts of human things this year; having a human love interest, or at least dating one, seems like a perfect way to add to the equation.

Now, let’s address all of the hate. Why give up on the season now? There’s no guarantee that she is going to stick around long, and plus, there’s a chance that she could be fantastic. We learned long ago not to judge a casting until we see them on the show (even if “Supernatural” has history with love interests), mostly because if we were to go only by our snap judgments all of the time, a good 30% of major TV twists that were awesome were things that we weren’t too fond of at first. In other words, we’ll give this a chance for now.

Of course, we still want to hear your thoughts below; meanwhile, click here if you want to see a new poster that features Castiel along with the Winchesters and also Crowley.

Photo: The CW