Supernatural
AS DEMON-HUNTERS THE WINCHESTER BROTHERS GO FOR THEIR LAST RIDE, WE SPEAK TO THE PRODUCERS ABOUT THE FINAL SEASON
Admit it. if you’re a Supernatural fan, once the show passed the decade mark and just kept going, a little part of you assumed it might stay on our screens forever; that the CW would let the Winchester brothers ride dean’s “baby”, the 1967 impala, on the road to nowhere into their geriatric years. But, as the saying goes, “there is an end to everything, to good things as well” – including Supernatural. earlier this year, when the time came to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down on a remarkable 15th season, co-stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen ackles took stock and decided that one last outing was enough. Come 2020, Supernatural will have clocked up 15 years, 327 episodes, five showrunners (including the current one, robert Singer, who’s been onboard since the second episode), and countless deaths, demons and guest stars. Not bad for a series that was initially mapped out by creator eric Kripke with the expectation that it might last five seasons.
they beat that by a long mile by focusing on the impenetrable bond of demon-hunting brothers Sam (Padalecki) and dean (ackles) Winchester, and their extended family of demon-expert friends and foes, including the oft-resurrected angel of the Lord, Castiel (misha Collins).
So how best to go about wrapping it all up in those 20 final instalments? for Singer (and his co-showrunner andrew dabb), the answer was to figure out the ending first and then work backwards through the rest of the season. after dropping the ending on their leads to process, they got to work with their writers’ room – including Singer’s wife, eugenie ross Leming, who’s written for the show since 2006 and became an executive producer in 2016.
It’s not melodrama, but it is emotional, with a lot of betrayal and redemption
“once we established where we thought it was going to end up, it had its own trajectory,” ross-Leming tells SFX over some late lunch, Singer seated by her side. “We’ll pretty much be following the drama. i don’t think it’s melodrama, but it is emotional, with a lot of betrayal and redemption. Spiritual and emotional resurrection: these are big themes. So it’s not a trivial year.”
FAMILIAR FACES
When you’re rounding off a series, it’s always a good time to bring back some old faces – and in a show where even the dead aren’t really dead, there’s plenty of opportunity to do so. Singer does have the caveat that any returnees have to fit into the story, though.
“i’m sure some people are going to get left out in the audience’s mind, but if it’s not organic in the story we won’t do it. that said, we have a wish list,” he smiles.
“everybody wants to come back,” rossLeming continues. “there are some that are so obvious that they’re just top tier. But where the story takes us means we will need certain people, so they are the priority.”
and what are the chances of one more “out-there” episode where Supernatural makes use of a bizarre high-concept – like placing the brothers into a Scooby-Doo episode, turning dean into a dog, making the Winchesters LarPers, or placing them in a black-and-white monster movie? that’s something which has become a staple of the series, with at least one offbeat instalment in every season since the very beginning.
“i think we owe ourselves one light episode this year,” Singer says. He admits they haven’t actually dreamed it up yet, but as with all of their off-kilter episodes, there will be a lesson at the end for the brothers. “it works its way back to what the arc of the season is, so i think we owe ourselves one of those because the end run is going to be heavy.”
While their attention is currently on writing and shooting the season at hand, our chat also provides an excuse to get nostalgic. When asked for his favourite run of the series, Singer is quick to praise season eight.
“[Showrunner] Sera [Gamble] had left us with Jensen in purgatory, and misha in purgatory, and Sam out there. it was playing the Jensen purgatory story, counterpointed with Jared’s story. i thought Jeremy [Carver] and i came up with an interesting way to shape that season. People were saying before then, and when Sera left, ‘Jesus, what are you going to do?’ and i thought we really pulled it off. i was very, very happy with that season.”
ross-Leming, meanwhile, says that she tends to pick episodes rather than seasons, but admits that she has a soft spot for season 13 because of Lucifer’s story.
“mark [Pellegrino] is such an amazing actor. i just loved watching Lucifer with [son] Jack. i thought it was a real, rich story, because Lucifer is this immortal demon but i’ve always been sympathetic to him, and felt my sympathy was justified. the complications of that
character were interesting to write, and great to see performed. Jared and Jensen interacted with him brilliantly. they didn’t ever treat him as a cardboard villain. they appreciated his subtleties, and they knew how to negotiate around them.”
JACK’S GOT THE KNACK
Speaking of Jack: he’s a character that both writers say will be a player in the finale season, and one they wish they’d conceived of earlier than the twelfth season in which he debuted. “alex [Calvert] is really gifted, he really fits in,” ross-Leming enthuses. “He’s such a delightful character, and he came along late in the run, so you might look back and say, ‘i wish we’d met him earlier.’ But i think you can say that about anybody you fell in love with! alex offers so much, we try to use as much of him as we can in service of the big Winchester story. the guys, as Bobby has said, are the heart and soul of the show. they’ve transformed Cas. in a way, they transformed Crowley, they transformed rowena, and everybody that they touched.”
as for where the brothers and Cas will ultimately end up (as they work together as a trio now), Singer is cagey. But he admits there’s an arc for the angel to work through this year.
“Cas showed up as kind of a dick of an angel,” he laughs. “But he’s been so long on earth that he’s come to appreciate human foibles and the human heart. We’re going to take him to a place that’s complete in that way. i’m not saying we’re going to make him human, but the end of that story is having these human emotions, and how you balance that with being angelic. the fact that he can get emotional with dean, or emotional with Sam, or have these feelings towards Jack, is such a journey from where that character began. that just naturally evolved, and we’re going to take that to its natural ending.”
When it comes to the Winchesters’ destiny in the final episode, all Singer will say is this: “i think the best way i can tease this is that with pretty much everything they’ve done for each other – their going to Hell and back, all these things – it’s always been about love for one another. they needed each other. one is incomplete without the other. So there’s a certain amount of selfishness involved in that. i think by the end of this year, what we’re going to get to is more of a true meaning of what love between brothers means. i think there’ll be a real finality to that love story.”
Here’s hoping that we all have smiles on our faces as Baby’s taillights fade away.
the final season of Supernatural is on the CW in the uS from 10 October. a uK date is tBC.