Supernatural, a staple collection of The CW, got here to a detailed in 2020 after a whopping fifteen-season run. For a lot of followers, the ultimate few episodes didn’t deliver the story of the Winchester brothers to a satisfying conclusion.
The finale, Carry On, was filmed throughout COVID. As such the solid checklist was lower down closely from the unique plan in keeping with Leisure Weekly. This (together with episode 18, Despair) additionally got here beneath heavy criticism resulting from how the ultimate moments of main characters performed out.
Since then, discussions of a revival have been rife among the many Supernatural solid and fandom. However will a sixteenth season (or film spin-off) come to go? Right here’s all the things we find out about a Supernatural revival.
Is Supernatural coming again?
Warner Bros. Discovery has not but confirmed any plans for a Supernatural revival. Nevertheless, there are indications that one thing might be within the pipeline.
The latest rumours come from Creation Leisure, the corporate behind many fan conventions, together with an entire bunch devoted solely to Supernatural.
On its Instagram web page, it introduced a collector coin for followers to have a good time the twentieth anniversary of the present, as Supernatural began in 2005.
Nevertheless, the dates on the merchandise caught the eye of followers, because it says ‘2005 – ?‘, slightly than ‘2020’, which is when the collection completed.
In fact, this might simply be a metaphor that the Supernatural fandom is eternally… or it might be a tease that the present might return someday. When that might be is one other matter.
You possibly can view the put up beneath, the dates will be seen within the second picture:
Lead actors Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester) and Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) have mentioned the potential of a revival on a number of events in the course of the conference circuit. Essentially the most outstanding rumours began in the course of the Creation Honolulu conference in November 2023, in keeping with Collider.
Padalecki stated: “I’ve some concepts, and I hope that now that the writers are again, and the actors are again, that all of us get collectively”. Ackles then adopted this up with “Keep tuned on that… there are some conversations relating to that dialog which can be being had.”
On 2 April 2024, Jared informed Collider the next: “If and when Supernatural comes again, it’s going to be a labor of affection, and we’re gonna put each hour in to ensure that it’s as true to the canon and to the fandom and to the story and to the characters as doable.
“So, my brief reply is it’s not a consideration, the reply is sure. I simply don’t know once I’m accessible. I don’t know when he’s [Jensen] accessible. However once more, my reply is sure.”
Jensen has had behind-the-scenes involvement with one other mission associated to Supernatural – a prequel referred to as The Winchesters, which aired in 2022. This was created by Chaos Machine Productions, which he’s a creator of, collectively together with his spouse Danneel Ackles (who had a visitor stint because the angel Anael on Supernatural).
The CW/Warner Bros. Discovery
Sadly, The Winchesters was cancelled after only a single season. Nevertheless, the truth that Jensen has been actively persevering with tales within the Supernatural universe may point out that extra reveals are being explored, together with a revival.
In actual fact, Chaos Machine Productions offered two TV reveals in 2024.
Earlier than these rumours, Padalecki and Ackles had been busy with different tasks corresponding to Walker and The Boys respectively, while Misha Collins (Castiel) performed the function of Harvey Dent on Gotham Knights.
Walker season 4 has now aired its last episode and was sadly not renewed for season 5. Padalecki has since starred in Hearth Nation and has been teased for a task within the final season of The Boys.
In June 2024, Padalecki once more mentioned a reboot on Tommy DiDario’s podcast I’ve By no means Mentioned This Earlier than, saying “I’m dying to do a reboot of Supernatural akin to the Gilmore Ladies reboot… Like, listed here are 4 one-and-a-half hour episodes, we’ll shoot it in three months.”
Ackles’ schedule can be fairly difficult to work round. He might be reprising his function as Soldier Boy on The Boys, and might be main a spin-off collection with Aya Money referred to as Vought Rising.
He has additionally been concerned within the CBS collection Tracker with Justin Hartley. Based on US Weekly, he even managed to get in a couple of Supernatural easter eggs. Jensen has additionally landed a task on the Amazon Prime collection, Countdown.
For Collins, Gotham Knights was one more CW mission that has not been renewed. As an alternative, he’s been specializing in ambassador work in Ukraine, and his charity Random Acts.
Whether or not the celebrities align for all three main actors to have time of their busy schedules for a revival stays to be seen.
Collins briefly despatched followers right into a panic when he introduced a ‘revival’ on his social channels through which Castiel was not concerned, but it surely turned out to be a traditional April Fools prank (the writer being ‘Becky Rosen’ is a serious clue).
https://twitter.com/mishacollins/standing/1775007952212254914
When will Supernatural return?
An interview with Jared Padalecki may indicate that the solid is attempting to get a Supernatural reunion began for this yr, 2025.
The actor stated the next on Tommy DiDario’s podcast: “I believe Jensen and I each stated in 2020 we’d like to revisit these characters, this world, give us 5 years – which is subsequent yr”.
That might make sense, contemplating that this yr we’ve heard extra hypothesis than ever earlier than a couple of revival.
Nevertheless, as we’ve famous above, Jensen Ackles has quite a few different tasks he’s presently engaged on which is able to in all probability be filmed in 2025 – together with The Boys.
Misha Collins additionally solid additional doubt on a revival taking place quickly at Heroes Comedian-Con in October 2024. He stated the next: “I believe we might all like to do some form of a reboot, or film or one thing in some unspecified time in the future, however there is no such thing as a plan for that proper now.”
A launch date can be depending on the revival discovering a community/streaming house. 2025 isn’t solely not possible, however primarily based on all the data we all know, we’d anticipate that the mission would solely be within the very starting phases if it was introduced this yr, which might indicate a 2026 launch on the earliest.
Ought to we hear extra, we’ll replace this text.
Would this be Supernatural season 16, or a Supernatural reboot?
No affirmation has been given by the solid or creators of whether or not this might be an official ‘season 16’, or a recent reboot. It in all probability is dependent upon if the unique actors are returning, or if Warner needs to do one thing completely different.
Ackles informed TV Insider in 2022 that he appreciated the concept of a shorter last season: “I’ve this lofty dream of when, after issues have settled, we’ll deal with yet one more case as Sam and Dean… [Maybe] a pleasant 10-episode short-order for HBO Max — I’m simply saying. Like an entire True Detective meets Supernatural. It’s proper there.”
Having a shorter run could be a break from Supernatural’s conventional 20-odd episode season, however would give time to give attention to a robust, shorter story. In that case, this can be thought of a spin-off miniseries.
Who may return for Supernatural season 16?
As we’ve already explored, we’d anticipate Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester), Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) and Misha Collins (Castiel) to be concerned in a revival, if it involves go.
Ackles initially had plans to deliver again previous faces in future seasons of The Winchesters earlier than its cancellation. As he informed Leisure Weekly, “We had been speaking not solely about story and the place we needed to take our solid, we had been speaking about who we had been going to deliver again from the mothership”.
As the ultimate episodes closely featured Nephilim Jack Kline (Alexander Calvert), then he may additionally return. Different possible candidates to be again on the present may embody Rowena (Ruth Connell), Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver), Crowley (Mark Sheppherd), Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes), Donna Hanscum (Brianna Buckmaster), Gabriel (Richard Speight) and plenty of extra.
If the reboot incorporates among the solid from The Winchesters, then we may see the return of younger John (Drake Rodger) and Mary (Meg Donnelly), and even their older counterparts (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Smith).
The CW/Warner Bros. Discovery
We don’t but know who might be concerned behind the digicam. The Winchesters recruited former author Robbie Thompson, however earlier Supernatural writers and administrators embody Andrew Dabb, Robert Singer, Sera Gamble, and naturally, the creator himself, Eric Kripke.
What may the plot of Supernatural season 16 be about?
Main spoilers for the ending of Supernatural and The Winchesters beneath
By the point season 15 of Supernatural rolled round, the stakes had been larger than ever – pitting the brothers in opposition to God himself, AKA Chuck Shurley (Rob Benedict). Chuck had lengthy been writing the story of the brothers, pulling the strings and controlling their lives.
After lastly defeating him with the assistance of Jack, the Winchesters went again into their normal monster-hunting enterprise. As such, they weren’t being stored ‘secure’ by larger powers anymore. Subsequently, Dean ended up assembly his demise by being impaled on a rusty nail throughout a median case in opposition to vampires.
Dean has overcome many adversaries throughout his lifetime, so this ending felt extraordinarily flat and anticlimactic for a lot of followers. After his dying, he met his previous good friend Bobby in Heaven, and drove the Impala on an infinite highway, earlier than lastly assembly up together with his brother who died of previous age.
While Sam bought to stay an extended and completely satisfied life, the viewers solely noticed this by way of a collection of flashforwards, and by no means really bought to know who his mysterious associate was – prompting followers to name her ‘Sam’s blurry spouse’. Many suspected that the lady was Eileen (Shoshannah Stern), a fellow hunter and love curiosity for the youthful brother. Nevertheless, we by no means knew for certain.
Subsequently, a brand new season may both discover a risk to Heaven, the place the brothers tackle one last case that addresses among the free plot threads left behind in season 15. Or it may happen within the time between Dean and Sam’s deaths. This may align with occasions that befell in Supernatural’s prequel, The Winchesters.
Within the finale of this present, a younger John and Mary Winchester met a mysterious stranger who appeared ‘Again to the Future’ type in a Chevy Impala. The viewers naturally knew him as Dean Winchester.
The present reveals that these variations of John and Mary aren’t technically Dean’s dad and mom. He has come to a different world, again in time, to create an alternate completely satisfied ending for his dad and mom. He provides them a letter from his grandfather, Henry (Gil McKinney), within the hope that John will perceive extra about The Males of Letters and looking and change into a extra caring guardian for the brothers sooner or later.
Dean additionally passes on his hunter’s journal to John and Mary, together with the Colt, a gun that may kill practically each being within the universe. That is in order that they each stand an opportunity at dwelling in opposition to their future enemies, corresponding to Azazel.
Subsequently, Supernatural season 16 may discover both a multiverse or one other department of time. Maybe Dean goes again to an earlier level within the present to alter the course of historical past, or we uncover how occasions would unfold with The Winchester’s timeline and the way this might have altered the lives of the brothers and their household, which famously “don’t finish with blood”.
Ackles shared hopes to revisit these characters in some capability after The Winchesters was cancelled:
https://twitter.com/JensenAckles/standing/1664975127019245570
One other large unresolved plot line comes from the eighteenth episode of season 15. Dean and Cas had been being hunted by Billie (AKA Dying) and ended up trapped in The Bunker with no approach out.
To avoid wasting Dean, Castiel summoned The Empty, a void entity that the angel had made a cope with a couple of years again. He did this by doing the factor that made him the happiest, which was confessing his love for Dean.
The romantic declaration (in keeping with Misha Collins through Delight) allowed The Empty to take each Cas and Billie, leaving Dean alone, and never giving him an opportunity to speak about this revelation from his finest good friend or discover whether or not he may really feel the identical approach.
A lot of the Supernatural fandom has lengthy been invested within the sophisticated relationship between Dean and Cas (AKA Destiel), and plenty of critics argued that Cas’s assertion moments earlier than dying was an enormous disservice because it performed into the ‘bury your gays’ troupe seen in lots of TV collection and movies earlier than.
There’s hope from many followers that Dean may reunite with Cas in a revival, and maybe lastly have a nuanced dialogue about that confession.
At Heroes Comedian-Con, Collins stated “I believe it might be tragic to not tackle it straight and have a dialog about it. I might like to know what Dean says as a result of he sort of left me hanging, you already know?”
He additionally expressed an curiosity in revisiting what occurred to his character, telling con-goes in Stockholm that he’d wish to see a storyline through which Cas is rescued from The Empty.
On the similar occasion, Collins admitted that he was requested to make a cameo in The Winchesters as Castiel, however he declined because it didn’t reply any of the canonical questions on what occurred to his character. Ackles was additionally in settlement with Collins.
It’s value noting that Cas was briefly talked about by Bobby within the last episode, implying that the Angel did get out of the Empty and helped rebuild Heaven. In fact, Supernatural has been identified to retcon issues earlier than.
The CW / Warner Bros.
Attainable antagonists for the revival may embody earlier characters corresponding to The Empty, Chuck and Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino). Alternatively, we may go to a completely new fantasy being – maybe one that’s concerned with the multiverse or time-travel, if that’s the route that the present finally ends up taking place.
What community may Supernatural 16 air on?
That is the place issues get a bit difficult. The CW is now beneath the possession of Nexstar, which is altering its focus to linear broadcast content material and sports activities programming from 2024 onwards. Present TV collection on the channel, corresponding to All American: Homecoming and Superman & Lois, will proceed for now.
Conventional CW staples corresponding to Supernatural don’t align with this technique. Plus, Padalecki not too long ago gave some scathing feedback concerning the channel to Selection after the community cancelled Walker, so it might be stunning if he and the solid had been to work with the channel once more.
The foremost different is the streaming service Max – a platform Ackles has beforehand expressed curiosity in.
It’d be stunning if the revival aired on one other channel or platform that’s not a part of Warner Bros. Discovery, contemplating that the unique present was beneath this firm. Then once more, earlier seasons have been syndicated on main streaming platforms, so it isn’t solely not possible.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
watch Supernatural seasons 1 to fifteen within the UK and US
If you wish to relive the adventures of The Winchester household within the UK, then you’ll be able to catch seasons 1 by way of 15 on Amazon Prime Video. Subscriptions for this begin from £5.99 per 30 days for video streaming solely, or £8.99 per 30 days for a full Prime subscription. Notice that you just’ll need to pay additional if you wish to go ad-free.
US readers can catch Supernatural on Spectrum.
You can even learn up on all the things we find out about Vought Rising, and the brand new animated adaption of Midnight Solar.
