The Winchesters boss breaks down those Supernatural returns and the series' future
Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Winchesters season 1 finale.
And that is how you wrap up a season! In its season 1 finale, The Winchesters brought back a few familiar faces, answered a lot of questions, and gave fans a sense of closure (and hope for the future) as John (Drake Rodger) and Mary (Meg Donnelly) defeated the Akrida and closed a chapter of their lives.
In the hour, which featured returns from Supernatural's Bobby (Jim Beaver), Jack (Alexander Calvert), and Dean (Jensen Ackles), the show answered the biggest question surrounding the series: Where does this story take place in the larger Supernatural timeline? As Dean explains in the episode, he was in heaven, taking that long drive while he waited for his brother to join him, when he got caught on a bit of a detour.
That detour took him to an alternate universe, one where he hopes the Winchesters might have a shot at a happy ending. (He even gives this John and Mary his hunting journal and the Colt in the hopes that he'll help them achieve it.)
EW spoke with Winchesters showrunner Robbie Thompson about crafting a finale that could serve as the series' end if the show is not renewed, but also one that opens up many doors for the Supernatural universe.
Eliot Brasseaux/The CW Drake Rodger and Meg Donnelly on 'The Winchesters'
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Well, thanks for the reminder that I'm not emotionally stable, because the moment Dean said "Sam," I started crying.
ROBBIE THOMPSON: You and me both! I got teary-eyed writing it, but then on the day, that one got me. Everybody made this joke on set and I'll go ahead and make it as well: Everyone kept saying, "Wow, that Jensen guy has chops. I think he's gonna go places." [Laughs] We always knew this scene was coming. We always wanted this moment. But he is such a special actor. And I don't think I realized how much I missed Dean Winchester, but there he is. We obviously had him in the pilot, but we didn't even mic him for sound. It was a tease, and this was a real scene.
Not only did you all reveal that this is happening after Dean's death, but it's a different universe's John and Mary! How'd you come to that story?
When we first first talked about it, the original core idea was just: young John and Mary. It was like, "Well, we love this, but how is this gonna work?" We did not want to do anything that would upend past, present, and most importantly, future Supernatural. At first that sounds very limiting, but it was actually very freeing. I was looking through my old notes and it was very clear just from even an initial conversation that there were a whole lot of different ways to get into this. But when we started thinking about the multiverse path, it did a couple things for us. Obviously it leaves the Supernatural universe intact. So whenever the boys, and I fully believe they'll put the boots on again — it's a question of when, not if — they both can step into those shoes and not be encumbered by anything. That was important. And then also it gave us room to tell a story for Mary and John, but through the lens of Dean.
So we wanted to find: What was the emotional story that we could tell for him as well? We had two pockets that we could exist in. One was after Chuck [Rob Benedict], before Dean's untimely demise, but that one didn't really work because I'd just be like, "Well, okay, where's Sam [Jared Padalecki]?" Whereas when he was in heaven, when he went for a drive, it felt like we had room there to play between the time that he gets in Baby and drives to meet Sam. And that felt like the most rich, fertile area for us to live in. What do you reflect on at the end of your life? And what in the Supernatural universe/multiverse would you maybe want to go take a look at? And then, you know, Dean's gonna Dean. [Laughs] He can't help himself. They say it in the episode: Even in death, hunters keep hunting.
I love the idea that this might be the universe where the Winchesters get a happy ending. I want to see that!
The show has talked a lot about this cycle of violence, this cycle of trauma that gets handed down from generation to generation. And if you had this opportunity that Dean has, in addition to saving the multiverse and obviously saving his brother, to be able to nudge his parents in this direction, that's why he doesn't tell them his name and the full truth at the end. He doesn't want them to feel like all roads lead to a 1967 Chevy Impala. They have to tell their own story. That just felt like a place where we could tell Dean's story and in the process, open the door for many, many more stories to tell with Mary and John and our incredible cast of characters.
Eliot Brasseaux/The CW Jensen Ackles on 'The Winchesters'
Well, speaking to that, I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, but theoretically, does this mean, if you're able to continue this story, we could eventually get to a different version of Sam and Dean?
100 percent. And different versions of characters that we've seen before, maybe actors in different parts. I've said from the beginning to friends that have worked on Supernatural, I was like, "Let me just get to episode 13 and then we're gonna blow the doors off." [Laughs] We have a lot of different options. But look, I'll tell you, I know how I would like this series to end and there's a whole lot of stories that we can do within this corner of the Supernatural universe. And yeah, you could eventually see a version of Sam and Dean down the road, if these two kids survive whatever torture we put them through, of course. [Laughs]
There's that beautiful montage at the end of the episode. Because you all don't know your fate, did you feel a need to make this work as a potential series finale as well?
Yeah, 100 percent. The montage was not scripted. We were down in New Orleans and we were shooting the very end, and John Showalter, who is our producing director, felt very strongly and I was in violent agreement as I like to say, that we needed to see the car moving. We wanted to see the kids on the road. But in watching them, this movie popped in my head, this Steven Soderbergh movie called The Limey. There's an editorial technique where he kind of just pops in and out of different timelines. I thought, "We wanna see these kids one more time to really kind of cement this moment." It was definitely designed that way.
This was basically always the story that we wanted to tell. I wanted the audience to know that this Akrida plot line and the mystery of Dean was a chapter, and that chapter was ending. You wanted that sense that emotionally there's more stories to tell, and who knows what lies down the road for these two crazy kids and for all of our characters, but I felt like our audience went on this journey and they deserved some closure as well, while still at least leaving room to play if we should be so lucky down the road. We did wonder, "Should we let them go for 10 more feet and then have them get into a horrible car wreck and really have a callback?" [Laughs]
It feels like this show and this story has opened more doors than it's closed.
We really thought that if we did this the right way, you could really open up the Supernatural universe for a whole lot of stories. There's so many more stories to tell and death has never, ever stopped those characters.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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