page_title: Supernatural (season 2)
section_title: Casting
hierarchical_section_title: Supernatural (season 2) / Production / Casting
caption_attribution_description: Actress Amber Benson at Buffy the Vampire Slayer wrap party.
context_page_description: The second season of Supernatural, an American dark fantasy television series created by Eric Kripke, premiered on September 28, 2006, and concluded on May 17, 2007, airing 22 episodes. The season focuses on protagonists Sam and Dean Winchester as they track down Azazel, the demon responsible for the deaths of their mother Mary and father John. They attempt to discover the demon's plan for Sam and other psychic children—young adults who were visited by Azazel as infants and given abilities, and whose mothers often then died in a fire. During their travels, they use their father's journal to help them carry on the family business—saving people and hunting supernatural creatures.
  The season aired on Thursdays at 9:00 pm ET in the United States, and was the first season to air on The CW television network, a joint venture of The WB and UPN. The previous season was broadcast on The WB. It averaged only about 3.14 million American viewers, and was in danger of not being renewed.
context_section_description: The writers used the second season to expand upon the concept of hunters, resulting in the introduction of many recurring characters through the hunter-frequented saloon—Harvelle's Roadhouse. Samantha Ferris portrayed Ellen Harvelle, proprietor of the Roadhouse and an old friend of John Winchester, while Alona Tal played Ellen's daughter Jo. This pair complemented the father-son relationship of the Winchesters in the first year. Ferris believes she was exactly what the producers were looking for: a "tough, strong, yet a little maternal actor". Tal's character, on the other hand, was an intended love interest for Dean, and was eventually phased out because she came off as more of a sister figure. Chad Lindberg portrayed the genius Ash, who uses his vast computer skills to track the paranormal. Because the writers felt the character's "comical" and "wacky" personality was too unrealistic for the show, he was also removed by the finale.
  Other characters returned from the first year. Actor Jim Beaver made multiple appearances as hunter Bobby Singer, an old family friend of the Winchesters. Beaver had expected his first-season guest appearance in "Devil's Trap" to be a "one-shot deal", and was surprised when he was asked to return. Adrianne Palicki reprised her role as Sam's deceased girlfriend Jessica in the alternate-reality episode "What Is and What Should Never Be", as did Samantha Smith as Mary Winchester. Smith also made an appearance in a flashback in the penultimate episode, "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One". And though at first reluctant because of his role on Grey's Anatomy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan returned as John Winchester in the season premiere and finale. However, the character dies in the premiere because the writers worried that having him separated from his sons again—Sam and Dean spend much of the first season tracking him down—would "split the show" by having him away "doing more interesting things than the boys are doing". As a demon, the villain Azazel periodically switches hosts, and was first fully portrayed by Morgan in the first-season finale. The reins passed to Fredric Lehne for the second-season premiere, and the show's producers enjoyed his performance so much they brought him back for the two-part finale.
  Many factors went into the casting decisions of the season's guest stars. Linda Blair, famous for her role in the horror film The Exorcist, appeared in the episode "The Usual Suspects". Though a fan of the show, Blair had turned down a guest appearance in the first season because she did not want to return to horror, having spent years getting a "clean slate". This changed after the television series Extra aired a three-part profile on her acting career and work with animals. It attempted to find a series that would write a role for her as "an actor's piece", rather than a cameo. Kripke, a fan of The Exorcist, offered to write an episode specifically for her, and she was "really touched" when he listened to her request to leave out demons in the storyline. During automated dialogue replacement, Jensen Ackles added in a reference to The Exorcist with the statement, "I could really go for some pea soup."
  The casting of Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer in "Roadkill" stemmed from the producers' preference to hire actors important to Supernatural's fanbase. This was the first episode to have the Winchesters as supporting characters, and Kripke felt "Tricia had the charisma to perform the leading role". Kripke enjoyed Emmanuelle Vaugier's work in television series such as Smallville, and believed she was an "easy choice" for the large role of the soon-to-be werewolf Madison in "Heart". Director Kim Manners felt Vaugier brought to the character a vulnerability like that of Lon Chaney Jr. in The Wolf Man, which made viewers sympathetic. Conspiracy-theorist Ronald of "Nightshifters" was envisioned by writer and consulting producer Ben Edlund as the unsympathetic "semi-drunk Randy Quaid from Independence Day". However, this changed with Chris Gauthier's casting, and Edlund felt that Ronald turned out to 
caption: Amber Benson, best known for her role of the witch Tara Maclay on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was specifically chosen to portray the vampire Lenore in "Bloodlust".[36]
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