<P> Morgan's "Nicholson-esque quality" continues with actor Fredric Lehne . Though uncertain of why he was specifically sought out--Lehne chalks it up to his previous working experience with executive producers Kim Manners and Robert Singer--the role was offered to him without an audition . The actor avoided copying Morgan's portrayal, but noted that the writing "lends itself to doing it in a certain way". </P> <P> Since Azazel changes human hosts periodically, Lehne's initial appearance in the second season premiere, "In My Time of Dying", was intended to be a one - time deal . Thoroughly impressed, however, the show runners kept him for the season finale . Despite the character's death, Lehne returned to the role in the sixth season premiere as a hallucination . </P> <P> A dream sequence in "All Hell Breaks Loose" hints at Mary Winchester's connection to Azazel . Although the writers intended to address this in the third season, it was pushed back to the fourth season episode "In the Beginning" due to the 2007--2008 Writers Guild of America strike . </P> <P> Kripke asked Mitch Pileggi to enact this revelation--the two had previously worked together on the series Tarzan--and the actor accepted because Kim Manners and much of the Supernatural crew had also worked on The X-Files . While Pileggi emulated Lehne's performance, he tried to "put his own spin on it". </P>

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