Misha Collins Is Ready to Show Off His Dark Side As Harvey Dent on Gotham Knights

It's not easy to go from literal angel to iconic Batman villain, but that's the task that Misha Collins undertook when he signed on to Gotham Knights. The new CW drama takes place in a Gotham City where Batman has been murdered, and Batman's own adopted son Turner (Oscar Morgan) has been framed for the crime. Collins plays District Attorney Harvey Dent, who is heartbroken to have lost his best friend Bruce Wayne and to have suddenly discovered that said best friend was also Batman. While he starts out as Gotham's shining star, every Bat-fan knows that Harvey Dent eventually finds himself on a dark path to becoming Two-Face—a baddie who, this time around, will face off against someone other than Batman. Dent's story is a tale that most people know thanks to The Dark Knight, and Collins is no stranger to any CW fan thanks to his many years on Supernatural. That's why the actor was excited to take on a version of Harvey Dent that felt fresh and offered him a new challenge, giving audiences the chance to see a whole new version of both Harvey Dent and Misha Collins. 

Below, Collins shares his excitement with TV Guide and previews how Gotham Knights will explore Harvey's inevitable transformation. 

Is it weird to be doing interviews about a show other than Supernatural? 
Misha Collins: Um, great question. Yes, I think it actually is a little weird. It hadn't dawned on me yet, but I think it is, yeah. I was so accustomed to just talking about one thing for so long, I'm finding my feet again. The other challenge is that on Supernatural, they didn't really care about spoilers. But this is the DC Batman universe, and I have to actually remember not to give away all the secrets, which is a challenge for me. I'm a gossip, so I like to just divulge everything. 

So tell me about this journey overall from playing a character that you got to originate for such a long time to playing a new character who's also a comic book fan fave. What has that been like for you?
Collins: It's been great, honestly. I was a little bit worried going into this having played Castiel for a dozen  years. There was a part of my self-conscious brain that was wondering whether I would be able to take on a new role, or if I had, like, calcified all of my acting bones and would only be able to do another version of Castiel in a different wardrobe. And it was really gratifying to learn that I actually still can play a different character. I don't have to just be one character for my entire life. And the evolution of this character…we're doing a version of Harvey Dent that hasn't shown up on screen yet, which is that we are spending a lengthy portion of the first season exploring Harvey Dent, as the district attorney. At the outset, there are no cracks in his facade. 

When we first meet Harvey Dent, he is just there to solve the murder, and as the investigation goes on and the season evolves, Harvey begins to  unravel. He has identity dysmorphia, which is a personality disorder, that starts to emerge from within. He has a family history of mental illness and an abusive childhood, and we explore all of that and how it is that he's trying to hold onto his sanity as he's continuing to investigate the murder of Batman. It unfurls into this very complex universe of syndicated crime and opposing forces of vigilante justice that he's trying to both support and rein in, and ultimately, the version of Harvey Dent that we see is very human. Like, once he becomes Two-Face, it's more of a tragedy than anything, which is not how it's been portrayed historically. It's been more of this nefarious, evil character emerging. Here, we've gotten to know Harvey Dent and we've gotten to see him fighting his own inner demons for so long that I think our hearts kind of bleed for him and can't help but also, in some small way, root for this new emergence of Two-Face. So it's a complicated, and I think very interesting, version of the character. 

So he'll be a more sympathetic Batman villain than we've seen before? 
Collins: Maybe, maybe more sympathetic. I think complicated, for sure. I think we will know that there's a good guy locked inside him at the very least, and want to find a way to mental health and redemption for the character as time goes on. 

Are there pressures that you feel about playing a character that's so well known? It's a name we know, but you're playing a new version of him, so how much can you add to him as an actor?
Collins: It's interesting. Just to go back to comparing and contrasting with Supernatural. We basically, for the most part, as far as Supernatural fans were concerned, walked on water, could do no wrong. For the most part, our online experience with our fans would be to be showered with praise, which was maybe good for the ego but overall probably not good for one's self-awareness in the world. But getting into the DC universe, people are so factional. I've been sort of surprised to see this, but people have strong opinions. They really care, and they're not afraid to tell you that they hate what you're doing, and I've gotten a fair amount of that already from DC fans who haven't seen anything yet. So it's like preemptive hate. And I think it's interesting because the whole DC universe and Marvel universe and the whole way that comic books constructed these universes over periods of decades allows writers of the comic books to playfully explore different iterations, different possible explanations for different characters and their storylines. They are not cohesive. There's been a lot of discussion about mandates for DC and Marvel to have perfectly cohesive universes. Of course, they're never going to be perfectly cohesive and everyone knows that because the lore from which they're born is one of exploration and iterating. And our version, I would say, is like the culmination. The version of Harvey Dent that the audience is going to see in Gotham Knights is our best effort to cherry-pick the best elements of Harvey Dent and Two-Face from decades of comic books and movies over the years. And I think because we have more time, we have 13 hour-long episodes to really explore how it is that someone would go from basically being the defender and champion of underdogs in Gotham to being a notorious villain and how that evolution could actually happen in a very real way. I don't think anyone has had the time to explore that in the way that we have. If we had done a sloppy job, or if it didn't hold together, I would be nervous because DC fans would come at me and they would have reason to. But I actually think were very thoughtful about it. We had a lot of conversations about being thoughtful in all the right ways and paid a lot of attention to it and I think people in the past have done a really good job with telling the story of Two-Face, and I think we did a better job. So if I didn't feel that way, I would be a little sheepish in answering that question, but I feel like we did a really f–king good job. 

In previous stories about Dent, we've seen his relationship with Bruce Wayne. This time we have to get it after the fact. Can you talk about establishing that history, and what his relationship is now with Bruce's kid?
Collins: So in our show, the first time we meet Harvey Dent, the district attorney, he is rolling over the body of Batman's corpse and discovering that Batman is Bruce Wayne, which rocks his world because Harvey was best friends with Bruce Wayne, but he didn't know that Batman was his alter ego. Harvey has known Bruce's adopted son since he was seven years old. He's been like a surrogate uncle to him, so when Bruce dies, Harvey takes it upon himself to take Turner under his wing, so we end up knowing they were best friends, and we know that Harvey also worked with Batman not knowing it was his friend in disguise. So inherent in discovering that body, it's rife with grief for Harvey Dent, but there's also a bit of betrayal in it, like wait a minute, my best friend was keeping this massive secret from me? And I think both of those things make him want to find a way to protect Turner, who was also betrayed by this discovery. He also didn't know that his father had this double identity, so it brings them together. We end up understanding Harvey's relationship with Batman through Harvey's relationship with Batman's son. 

Is there a conflict there for him, since he wants to advance his career but also wants to protect the kid who the entire city is after? 
Collins: We learn very early on that Turner has been framed for the murder of Batman, and Harvey is dubious about that at first, like the evidence is very solid to support [Turner being the murderer]. He's on the run from the law, and I'm trying my hardest to piece together the pieces without, you know…I'm an elected official. I don't want to alienate all the voters by appearing to be on the side of what appears to be a criminal and a murderer. But at the same time, I am motivated by a desire to help my friend's son and to be on the side of actual justice, not just expedient political justice, and it gets more complicated as the season goes on because my political aspirations—and in some respects, my own self-serving darker side—start to take hold, and I start to make some compromises. 

Can you talk about that dark side? How does it compare to the darkness we've seen from you on Supernatural? 
Collins: I think there were times on Supernatural where I really did embody a very dark and sinister character, but it was when I was possessed by Lucifer or something. In this case, I guess there is a little bit of overlap because it's almost like a possession, but it's in the form of identity dysmorphia. It's in the form of my split personality emerging as dominant, so I have this sort of darker alter ego that has been a constant companion from my childhood, as we learn as the show goes on. That darker side begins to emerge as, in a sense, I feel like I need him. The good guy just can't fight the fight, and increasingly it's like the tough, dark side character emerges out of necessity, and that's all I'm gonna say on the matter. 

What are you most excited for people to see when Gotham Knights finally premieres? 
Collins: I mean, I think it's really well-written television. It's really beautiful. It's incredibly well-produced. It feels different from any Batman TV that I have seen. It's kind of cinematic and just really…I'm excited. There's a part of me that's a little bit nervous about the DC fans, but on the other hand, I actually think I'm really excited for DC fans to see this because I think we did a really good job, and I think it's gripping TV. 

Gotham Knights premieres March 14 on The CW.