Mark Sheppard is well-known to fans of Supernatural thanks to years of playing the demon (and later King of Hell) known as Crowley, but he left that show behind after the long-running show's twelfth season. Given that all signs point toward him not returning to his old stomping grounds on The CW, fans could only hope that he would turn up on another wild show sooner rather than later. Well, Doom Patrol has some very good news. Sheppard joins the series to play an intriguing character in an upcoming episode.
Here's what we know. Mark Sheppard will play a character by the name of Willoughby Kipling. With a name like that, you will probably not be surprised to know that the character is a Brit, and Sheppard will be able to keep his accent. Kipling recruits the Doom Patrol to help him stop a nihilistic cult, and by doing so, prevent the end of the world.
Based on what we've seen of the Doom Patrol so far, I'd say that Kipling would have better luck preventing the end of the world if he could borrow Sam and Dean Winchester.
Since that's not going to happen, we can probably count on some hilarity between Kipling and the Doom Patrol. In case the name doesn't ring a bell, Willoughby Kipling is actually a character from the pages of DC Comics, although he's far from the most well-known. In the comics, Kipling is a powerful magician who drinks, smokes, curses, and basically shames his peers. Also, he wears a trench coat.
If that sounds an awful lot like a description of John Constantine, there's a good reason for it. Doom Patrol comics writer Grant Morrison created Willoughby Kipling in 1990 specifically because he wasn't allowed to use Constantine in his DC superhero comic, according to CBR. Constantine was at that time generally relegated to only appear to comics from Vertigo. In the years since, Constantine has become much more closely tied to DC superheroes, and a version of the character is even part of the Arrow-verse on The CW.
Mark Sheppard is certainly excited about Doom Patrol, if his tweet is any indication:
None of this is to say that Willoughby Kipling on Doom Patrol will be exactly like Constantine, and Supernatural fans may be more likely to compare him to the trench coat-wearing angel Castiel. It should definitely be interesting to see how well Mark Sheppard fits into the Doom Patrol dynamic. He's set to appear in just the fourth episode of the first season, called "Cult Patrol," so it's not like the team has been around for years already. Could he disrupt what little balance they have?
At this point, there's no news as to whether Mark Sheppard could return for more than one episode as Willoughby Kipling. The comics character wasn't just one-and-done, so perhaps there will be room for more of him down the line. I hardly think he could possibly be too weird for a show like Doom Patrol! Take a look at Kipling in the promo for the next episode of Doom Patrol:
New episodes of Doom Patrol release Fridays on DC Universe. It's the third DC Universe original series to premiere, following Titans back in 2018 and Young Justice: Outsiders earlier this year. Doom Patrol's team is definitely very different from the teams on the other two shows, and I somehow think that Robotman and Co. are more suited to a villain like Nobody than any of the other teams. Only time will tell how they fare as new episodes continue to air this midseason.
