{"id":110425,"date":"2019-10-09T12:25:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T11:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=110425"},"modified":"2019-10-10T11:19:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T10:19:24","slug":"supernatural-season-15-saying-goodbye-with-jared-padalecki-jenson-ackles-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/interviews\/supernatural-season-15-saying-goodbye-with-jared-padalecki-jenson-ackles-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Supernatural Season 15: saying goodbye with Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 14 years, Sam and Dean Winchester are bracing themselves for the end of the road. We speak to the stars and executive producers of Supernatural<\/em> as the CW\u2019s longest running series heads into its 15th and final season\u2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When the fifteenth and final season premieres this October, The CW\u2019s Supernatural<\/strong><\/em> will finally hit the highway and start to take the long road home. Over the course of the last 14 years, we\u2019ve not only watched demon hunters Sam and Dean Winchester grow, die, be resurrected and grow some more, we\u2019ve also watched the show\u2019s stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles start promising acting careers, get married, have babies and become middle-aged (but still dashingly handsome) men. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is hard to express the takeaway from the experience,\u201d says Ackles. \u201cIt\u2019s been 15 years. Well, we’ll say 14 and change. It’s a long time. Jared was just in his early twenties\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was just born,\u201d jokes Padalecki. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou were just born, continues Ackles. \u201cAnd we hoofed it up to Vancouver thinking that we’d put our lives on hold \u2013 just press pause and work for maybe a season, maybe two. We knew we had something good, so we might have even gotten something like three seasons out of it \u2013 but we never expected this. After three seasons, we would then come back and press play on life and things would go on. But it never got un-paused, and I’m very thankful that it didn’t, because it’s been quite a ride. It\u2019s hard to express what we’re going to take away from the experience, but it definitely includes lifelong friends and experiences of a lifetime. It’s hard to put it into words.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In those 15 years since the series started, Ackles and Padalecki have constantly had their chiseled noses to the grindstone to help build a legacy for both Supernatural<\/strong><\/em> and themselves. \u201cI feel like the relationships I’ve been able to build has been incredible,\u201d Padalecki gushes. \u201cI\u2019ve met a couple of my best friends on the show and had some kids. I got really tired, got a few grey hairs when they wouldn’t stop waking up in the middle of the night. For me, the legacy is going to be\u2014Jensen and I have talked about this, about the show and about how lucky we are. We still have a job to do, but I feel like I’m really lucky because my friendships won’t go away, and Sam Winchester, for me, won’t go away. He’ll be a part of me forever; until the end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, I’m just really proud of the work that this team has done for this long,\u201d says Ackles. \u201cTo do a show is not easy. To make television is not as easy as people may think. You see the 42 minutes that we release to the masses, but to get those 42 minutes is eight days of very intensive work, but that’s just the filming of it. There’s pre-production. There’s prep. There’s the writing. There’s the conceptualising. There’s a lot that goes in, and it takes a lot of very talented people to give you guys the best product we can make. And I’m really proud of that product, and after this long on a show, to still truly love what we do and be proud to hang my hat on that at the end of the day, is … That’s what I’m going to take with this. That’s one of the legacies that I’m proud of; is knowing that I put it in. I put in the effort. We all did. Everybody puts it in. Nobody phones it in, and I’m thankful that the fans appreciate that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: DEAN BUSCHER\/THE CW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The journey has been slightly different for actor Misha Collins, who joined the series in Season 4 as angel Castiel. Starting as a guest star in that season\u2019s angels and demons arc, he slowly worked his way up to series regular and ended up becoming both a fan favourite and an integral part of the show. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just recently found a goal card, one of these three-by-five note cards that I write around New Years,\u201d he tells us. \u201cThey are really nerdy. It’s like, \u2018Here are my goals for the year.\u2019 And the year before I got on\u00a0Supernatural<\/strong><\/em>, I had written this goal of, \u2018I’m going to be a regular on a show that is creatively fulfilling, and I become lifelong friends with my cast mates.\u2019 But it came true. I was like, \u2018Oh, my God. I can’t believe that I wrote that, and I can’t believe that this has come to pass.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

“I consider these guys lifelong friends. I could never have dreamed that along with that would come this incredible fandom and this kind of iconic legacy of a show. And it feels like a great honour to have been a part of it. I look forward to writing a new goal card.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cast mates have come and gone over the seasons. Jeffrey Dean Morgan had a recurring role for some years as Sam and Dean\u2019s dad John, Jim Beaver kept popping in as hunter\/father figure Bobby Singer and Felicia Day starred in a handful of episodes as the geeky and well loved Charlie Bradbury. Unfortunately, Supernatural<\/strong> <\/em>has a habit of killing characters off, so most don\u2019t stick around for too long. <\/span><\/p>\n

Actor Alexander Calvert joined the show in Season 12 as recurring character Jack Kline, the Nephilim son of Kelly Kline and Lucifer. Season 14 of course left Sam and Dean in a somewhat awkward position when it came to Jack: Jack killed their mother Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith) and left the brothers trying to figure out what to do with him. When the finale, \u2018Moriah\u2019, came around, the brothers were once again at breaking point. After God gifted Dean with a gun that would be able to kill Jack, Dean prepared to the deed but, being the kind of man he is, he ended up backing down at the last minute. It\u2019s there that we were presented with the biggest plot twist of the season: God had been manipulating the situation like one of his stories the whole time. Angry that the tale was finally going the opposite way, he eventually killed Jack himself and turned the world into darkness. But, as this is Supernatural, the Nephilim\u2019s death wasn\u2019t final. When we last left him, Jack had just awoken in the Empty, only to be greeted by reaper Billie (Lisa Berry) and the Shadow. <\/span><\/p>\n

Jack\u2019s story is far from over, and we can expect to see him next in the Season 15 finale. “Jack had a real not-so-great end to the season, but he\u2019s back,\u201d Calvert tells us. \u201cFor me, I think Jack’s journey and mine on this, my small part on this show, has just been truly, truly incredible, so I’m just excited for all of these people and for you guys as well just to really see this journey come to an end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: DEAN BUSCHER\/THE CW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

God is watching\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Since Sam and Dean\u2019s hunt for Azazel, the yellow-eyed demon that killed their mother, Supernatural<\/strong><\/em> has always been well into its demons. Whenever the Winchesters experience some kind of inconvenience, there\u2019s often a demon involved somewhere. After finally introducing the angels in Season 4, the show got a lot more biblical, with a number of its case-of-the-week mysteries and major ongoing plot lines playing on religious lore and figures. The show has even attempted to reimagine God himself, who has been played by Rob Benedict in Seasons 4, 5, 10, 11 and 14 (his character was known as Chuck Shurley, an author and prophet of the lord before he was finally revealed to be God in Season 11 episode \u2018Don\u2019t Call Me Shurley<\/strong><\/em>\u2019). <\/span><\/p>\n

Season 14 left us with God well and truly pissed off following the events of \u2018Moriah<\/strong><\/em>\u2019, but there\u2019s a lot more of that to come. \u201cWell, I think that final moment, the very end of the season finale, was probably one of the big game-changing moments we’ve ever had on the show,\u201d says writer and executive producer Brad Buckner. \u201cAnd to be 14 seasons in on a show and be able to have that much of a game changer is something, because there was an assumption about God. We talked about God having left the building. He was not around. He was a long distance guy and literally had hands off. And that was confirmed when Chuck appeared for the first time a couple of seasons ago. But that was really the rule. And the boys bought into that and believed it. They were willing to accept a God who was hands off and sort of let free will take over, and humans would do what they were going to do. And he would step in as needed, maybe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But \u2018Moriah<\/strong><\/em>\u2019 changed everything. \u201cSuddenly, we have a God who never did leave the building, really,\u201d Buckner continues. \u201cHe was standing in the shadows, manipulating, creating stories and watching how the boys were going to respond to this. So this really messes with your entire belief system when you believe one set of things. And it’s bad enough to not buy into the whole thing about God is all seeing, all knowing, all powerful, but had left the building. And now, everything changes because you can’t even accept what he told you initially was the truth. That turned out not to be the truth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With God revealing himself to be an unpredictable, untrustworthy figure, the Winchesters no longer know where they stand, or if they are even in control of their own actions, says writer and executive producer Eugenie Ross-Leming. \u201cYou’re living your life, basically, on quicksand,\u201d she says. \u201cYou don’t know if any step you’re taking is an authentic step, that you’re initiating yourself, or is everything an illusion or pre-planned by this kind of diabolical deity? We’re playing with each other as writers trying to figure out what it really means. It’s the last year, so we have a chance to take chances we didn’t have before. We’re building to something that we all have to have a consensus on, but it’s an answer that can never really be final. I think it has many tentacles, and you’ll be seeing them played out through the season. But basically, it’s exciting for us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to Big Bads, the Winchesters have gone up against just about everything: demons, Leviathans, angels, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the King of Hell and more. The only thing left to conquer is God himself. “What is really exciting about this Chuck reveal at the end of last season is that it really opens up a theme of free will, which is what we’ve been dealing with this entire time,\u201d explains writer and EP Robert Berens. \u201cAnd I think the way that this news lands on both Sam and Dean, we’ll see them respond very differently at different points to this news. And I think it puts everything they’ve done, everything they’ve accomplished, into doubt. What was them? What was this plan? And I think the position of the show is, yes, you did save the day. Those were authentic victories. But they have to struggle with that and sort of reclaim the victories of their past and say, \u2018No. This was us. We do have free will.\u2019 And it’s just that dynamic is going to play out really interestingly throughout the whole season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Shane Harvey\/The CW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Building a legacy\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Supernatural<\/strong> <\/em>got off to a strong start when it first premiered The CW back in 2005, pulling in between five and six million viewers per episode during Season 1. Like with most shows, the figures began to drop off after the initial season, but since then the viewing figures have remained fairly consistent. Though the quality of the show might have dipped slightly since it first started (we reckon many Supernatural<\/strong><\/em> fans will agree with us when we say Seasons 1 to 3 were, by far, the best of the lot), it continues to gain brand new regular viewers every year. The Winchesters might have aged 15 years since Sam quit law school to hit the road and hunt demons with his big brother, but the story at the heart of the show remains timeless. <\/span><\/p>\n

One man that has been behind the scenes since the beginning (bar the series\u2019 pilot episode) is executive producer Robert Singer. From Season 1 to where we are now, he has written four episodes, directed 47 and executive produced and consulted 321. He even appeared in one episode \u2014 Season 6\u2019s meta adventure \u2018The French Mistake<\/strong><\/em>\u2019 \u2014 though he was played by Caddyshack\u2019s Brian Doyle-Murray. Singer currently serves as co-showrunner with Andrew Dabb and, after watching over (and controlling) the Winchesters for so many years, he has a pretty good idea of what has kept the show\u2019s momentum going for this long.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it all starts with Jared and Jensen,\u201d Singer says. \u201cWhen you cast these shows, you don’t know what\u2019s going to happen. You could have two great actors who have no magic in a bottle. But Jared and Jensen, right from the start, you just believe them. They’re close personally. They’re close as characters. And over the course of 14 seasons, you’re going to have some scripts that are less good than others, but they always give their level solid best \u2013 and they carry us through the ones that may be not as good as \u2018The French Mistake<\/strong><\/em>\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing is, I think Eric [Kripke] created these two characters \u2013 and Eric and I worked together closely for the first five years,\u201d he continues. \u201cI think a foundation of what the show could be was built fairly early, and I think when Eric left us, he left us with a lot of good things. I had the pleasure of working with a number of different writers and it’s always been a joy. You never imagine 15 years on a show, but it seems to have gone by awfully quick, because I pretty much enjoyed every minute.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This article first appeared in SciFiNow issue 162. <\/em><\/p>\n

Supernatural<\/em> Season 15 premieres on The CW on 10 October in the US. The season’s UK premiere is yet to be announced. Get all the latest fantasy news with every issue of SciFiNow.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cast and crew of Supernatural Season 15 look back on what made the show unique as we head into the final season <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":110426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1718,7,207],"tags":[77],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/FU-Supernatural14-2.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}