Two weeks ago, “Supernatural” returned for its tenth season on The CW. This year, everything is different. Dean (Jensen Ackles) is an unrepentant demon and even Sam (Jared Padalecki) may not be able to save him.
Back at Comic-Con, CraveOnline participated in the “Supernatural” roundtable interviews in which the cast members and executive producer/showrunner Jeremy Carver dropped some hints about the new season. And according to Carver, tonight’s episode will be introducing a major new player into the Sam and Dean storyline.
“We will be introducing another… really really interesting and complex female character a little later in our first batch of episodes,” said Carver. “We will see a first sort of glimpse of her in episode three and we’ll absolutely be expanding on our understanding of who she is as our season continues.”
Carver also touched upon Travis Aaron Wade’s new character, Cole as well as some familiar faces from the past. “we are bringing back some folks. Some folks you wouldn’t think we’d be bringing back. Right from the get go, while Sam is hunting his brother, we introduce another character, [Cole], who’s on the same hunt. And their paths will cross in a not friendly way. We discover this other individual with certain designs on Dean, which will complicate a lot of things for the boys.”
Jared Padalecki told the reporters that “I love the Sam that’s committed and loyal and is fighting for his brother. It was tough to play, I’m gonna call it purgatory Sam, but it was tough to play Sam when Dean was in purgatory, you know what I mean? Cus i’m a loyal guy, I’m a fighter for things I care about. For family, for friends. So I like when Sam is willing to fight. We test, kinda, the limits of morality and ethics in just how far he goes, but that’s a fun theme we like to play with on Supernatural. So, I really enjoy it.”
Naturally, Jensen Ackles embraced the new Demon Dean (Deamon?!) that he gets to play this season.”The way that Dean was last season was just… heavily guilt ridden,” related Ackles. “You know, the weight of the world on his shoulders. The fact that he had tricked his brother into being processed by Gadreel, and his brother not wanting to have a brother relationship with him.”
“[Dean] was just kinda on a collision course for destruction, [with] the mark of Cain,” continued Ackles. “It was a weighty season for Dean. So I wanted to lift that all away and make it a Dean that has no worries, that has no cares. He could care less about anybody’s feeling, he could care less about anything or anyone and he’s so carefree it’s scary.”
However, Carver argued that it’s “a little more nuanced than that. The Dean you see in the beginning is not the Dean you’re expecting to see. Likewise with Sam, in season 8 there was that sorta definitive moment where he said he didn’t look for his brother. And I think the events in the last couple of seasons, particularly where they ended up at in the very end episode where they sorta of came to this understanding. Which for me personally felt… they’ve had a lot of understandings, this felt resonate in the whole “I’m proud of us”, and just Sam essentially saying to his brother, ‘I understand you may die and I’m ok with that,’ which was a complete reverse of where they were in the beginning of the season. “
Carver added that it felt ”organic that Sam would be very much on the hunt for his brother. We hinted at it in the teaser for the season that Sam has things he needs to answer for as well and the question, ‘who’s the real monster here?’ Given the moral depths that Sam sank to find and rescue his brother.”
One character who seems unwilling to embrace his darker side is the angel Castiel, as played by Misha Collins. “Castiel has gone from good to bad to ugly to God, to crazy to human to where he is now, which is a depleted angel,” explained Collins. “I think that journey that Cas has been on, has made him reluctant to make the wrong decision now. He feels like he’s done so much bad, that he really doesn’t want to repeat that. He knows that if he wants to regain grace and health he has to slit another Angels throat and steal his grace, but he’s unwilling to do that because he believes it’s too ethically corrupt, so he’s resigned to fading away at this point.”
When asked whether he would be directing an episode this season, Collins replied “unfortunately no, but I’m hoping to next season.” Collins also acknowledged that Cas might find some romance this season. “There are certain sparks and insinuations that come up early on in the season,” teased Collins.
After ten seasons, there’s speculation that “Supernatural” could finally be nearing the end of its run. But Padalecki doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to move on to other roles.”I’m enjoying it a lot more now,” acknowledged Padalecki. “And that’s not a line they are paying me to say or something. I really do truly feel like, in the beginning there were a few dark episodes but it didn’t really work. We were trying to figure out what worked, who the characters were, what the fans liked and everything in between.”
“Now I feel like it’s a running ship,” continued Padalecki. I feel like it’s working well. I’m like a brother to all these actors and they’re like brothers and sisters to me. I love the crew. I’ve gotten use to the travel. We all know each other. It’s been ten years! It’s like you going to high school for ten years. A high school where you enjoy people, and you enjoy what you do.”
Even Carver admitted that the goal posts have changed and the tenth season isn’t necessarily the end of “Supernatural.”
“We all have little goals,” said Carver. “ It’s really, this year in particular, we get to make things more personal. It’s always personal… but I think in the seasons past, sometimes, we’ve slapped you in the face with what the mythology of the year is gonna be, which is great, it’s like it’s gonna be a quest for this. But this year it deliberately builds a little differently. We are putting some block in place that i think will have a big impact by the time we get [to the end].”
“I think… the original plan I had, it’s still working but we’ve had to [change] it a little bit given that the show keeps on firing,” added Carver. “I think I realized maybe somewhere in season 9 [that] it wouldn’t be ending anytime soon. So it feels like we want to keep you know keep stretching it out. Not in a bad way, but the sort of ending vision or moment has to obviously be put off. It’s a very good problem to have. More seasons, you know.”
