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The music legend will play Lucifer's new vessel, a "washed-up aging rock star."
Supernatural is usually a little bit country, but it's getting more rock and roll in season 12.
The long-running CW series has cast musician Rick Springfield as the new Lucifer, the show's executive producers Bob Singer and Andrew Dabb revealed during the drama's Comic-Con panel on Sunday.
"Lucifer is going to try out different vessels and the first one he feels comfortable in is a rock star named Vince Vicente," Singer said. "We have cast that role."
Singer then pitched the casting announcement to moderator Richard Speight Jr. who played arch angel Gabriel on the series.
"Rick Springfield is going to be the new Satan," Speight said.
Dabb added, "Lucifer got what he wanted last season, his face-to-face with God [Rob Benedict]. Now he's out in the world. We see Lucifer on vacation and he wants to have fun. This is a real role. Great actors have played this before like Mark Pelligrino and Misha Collins a little bit, so we needed someone who could act. Most rock stars can only sing and very few can act. If you've seen Ricki and The Flash or True Detective recently, he's really great."
Vincente is described as a "washed-up aging rock star," and will appear in the first few episodes of the season. Springlfield shot his first scene on Friday.
The packed panel kicked off with a sneak peek look at the season 12 premiere, which featured a continuation of the season 11 finale cliffhanger. A shocked Dean (Jensen Ackles) found his long-dead mother Mary (Samantha Smith) alive in the woods, still dressed in the nightgown she died in when he was just a boy. He asked her if she was real, and she wrestled him to the ground, showing off her hunter skills. The rest of the sneak peek showed dark glimpses at Sam (Jared Padalecki) being held hostage and getting tortured possibly by the British Men of Letters, Castiel (Collins) alive but in a knock-down, drag-out bloody fight and Dean getting held at gunpoint. The ominous footage ended with Mary's voiceover saying, "I never wanted this for you and Sam."
Later during the panel, a man dressed as "fat Castiel" proposed to his girlfriend before asking a fan question, and the entire Hall H erupted in cheers when she said yes and he went in for a passionate kiss. "I love when satanically themed television shows bring people together," Speight joked.
And continuing its tradition, the Comic-Con panel ended with the debut of the previous season's blooper reel. This year's was especially goofy, with Padalecki and Ackles doing model poses next to the show's iconic car Baby and Ackles washing Baby while wearing jorts. The audience went crazy, with the screams sometimes drowning out the actual audio from the footage.
Supernatural returns for season 12 on Thursday, October 13 at 9 p.m. on The CW.
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