Supernatural is currently the longest sci-fi/fantasy series with a total of 320 episodes across 15 seasons. The series ended in November 2020 and as with any TV series with a devoted fanbase the finale was met with a mix of emotions from fans, especially regarding the fate of Dean Winchester as played by Jensen Ackles. The actor revealed he too had reservations when he and Jared Padalecki, who played Dean’s younger brother Sam, first learnt how the series would end.
In Supernatural‘s finale ‘Carry On’, Sam and Dean are on a hunt when Dean gets impaled during a battle with a vampire. He dies and is sent to Heaven while Sam lives a full life on Earth with a family and son who also became a hunter. After Sam passes, he and Dean reunite in Heaven after what seemed like minutes or hours after Dean arrived. In a guest appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast Inside of You, Ackles opened up about the reaction to the ending, ultimately siding with both arguments and revealing his initial thoughts on the ending.
“I don’t think there’s a wrong opinion about it,” Ackles told Rosenbaum. “I honestly don’t. I think that the people that had problems with it are validated and I think the people that enjoyed it are validated. I was in both camps. I spent time in both camps, and this is no secret. The very first time we had ever heard what was going to happen at the end of the season, Jared and I flew out to L.A., and we went to the writers room before the season started, and we all sat down, and they essentially pitched us how they wanted to wrap up the show, which was the first time in Supernatural history that that had ever happened.”
“My initial reaction was, I don’t like it. I was trying to be respectful so I said ‘Hmm, okay,'” Ackles continued. “I didn’t give them an overwhelming response. I was like ‘Okay, I’m gonna sleep on it.’ Because it’s a big thing, I don’t want to mess this up. So I slept on it, and about a week went by, and I went to my wife and I was like ‘I’m just really bumping on this.’ And she was like, ‘Is it because Dean dies?’ And I’m like ‘Maybe. Maybe I’m just too close to that character and I just don’t want to see him go.’ And for some reason I always thought that if someone was going to go it would be Sam, as kind of the martyr and Dean would then be left to just kind of stumble through the rest of his life mourning his brother and his lost family. It would be, maybe, a sad existence, but that’s just how it happened. Or we would both go, like a Butch and Sundance kind of a thing. But me going and him continuing on, it just didn’t sit well with me.”
“So my wife in all her infinite wisdom, said, ‘You should talk to somebody outside of this that understands the world.’ And I was like, Eric Kripke, who created the world, who created the characters, who had been gone since Season 5. So he’d been gone for 10 years, but he still knew the show. So I called him, and he had not heard what they were planning, so I told him, and he did the same thing I did. He said, ‘Let me sleep on this, kind of get some clarity on it and I’ll phone you tomorrow.’ So he ended up sending me this very, incredibly well-written email explaining why he thought this was a great ending, and it just put things in perspective for me, and from then on I was on board.”
To be fair to Ackles, Supernatural was originally supposed to end with season five until The CW decided to renew it. Kripke left despite the renewal since he told the story he wanted to tell, which ended in a very similar way to Ackles’ vision as Sam sacrificed himself to keep Lucifer locked in Hell and Dean went to live a hunter-free life with his girlfriend and her son until Sam’s mysterious return in the sixth season.
Ackles will next star in the third season of Kripke’s Amazon superhero series The Boys as Soldier Boy. Check out the first look image of his character here.
What did you think of Supernatural‘s ending? Do you agree with Ackles’ view or are you upset at the choices made? LEt us know on our social channels at @flickeringmyth…
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
