Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins discuss 15 years of fantasy, family, and flannel.
“We only get one shot at this.
“Sam and Dean Winchester are surrounded.
Peggy Sirota for EW
The monster-hunting brothers are standing on the edge of a cliff.
They look to Castiel, their brother in arms or is it wings?
but even he can’t help.
Peggy Sirota for EW
One move in the wrong direction could ruin everything.
But this situation is unlike anything they’ve ever dealt with before.
All eyes are on them as they have one shot…at getting the perfect picture.
Peggy Sirota for EW
But if their characters can shoulder the weight of the world, surely these three can handle a photo.
(So old, the first three seasons shot on this thing called film.)
“Almost every one of our shows has had it as a lead-out or a lead-in.”
Peggy Sirota for EW
And to think, it all started as a promise to bring horror to television.
As he puts it, it was aKolchak: The Night Stalkerrip-off.
But when he realized the story would benefit from having brothers at its core, he started writing.
Peggy Sirota for EW
“At the time,The RingandThe Grudgewere huge hits in theaters,” Kripke remembers.
“I canceled all my Christmas plans and wrote that second draft in three weeks,” he says.
I couldn’t do anything fun, so I started entertaining myself.”
Peggy Sirota for EW
“We’re a show of big swings,” co-showrunner Robert Singer says.
Those are just some standard monsters of the week.
And the swings never stopped.
“Because we know that our fans are smart and that they’ll follow these guys anywhere.”
(It just so happens that their mother was killed by a demon and their father hunted them.)
“The first inkling I had that we had something special was shooting the pilot,” Kripke says.
“It was the scene on the bridge when Sam and Dean talk about their mother.
It was the first time that you really saw their chemistry and their connection as brothers on full display.
Because I’ve always said this show begins and ends with whether you believe that sibling relationship.”
But Sam and Dean weren’t just the center of the show.
For many years, theywerethe show.
Supernaturalhas never been an ensemble drama.
But Sam and Dean weren’t just in every episode; they anchored every episode.
(They skipped table reads because there would’ve been only two actors there.)
“I had many moments of not only questioning, ‘Can I keep this up?’
“I borrowed strength from Jensen.”
But even Ackles, 42, admits it was a tough job.
“The 23-episode seasons were nine and a half months of filming,” he adds.
It was a chat both actors took to heart.
“We’d both been on other sets,” Ackles says.
“And I’m sitting there pinching myself.”
“Coming to this set, it was an immediately different vibe.
A similar reputation extends to the fans as well.
But their dedication isn’t just about seeing what crazy twist God throws at Team Free Will next.
“You need stars who you want in your living room.”
“It’s going to be a long eight months,“Ackles declares.
It might be the setting looking out over the ocean or the occasion: their last-ever photo shoot.
Or maybe it’s the fact that they’re almost a month into filming their final season.
It had been a question posed to the stars for years: How long will this show continue?
How long can it continue?
Ackles says with a laugh.
But in season 14,they hit 300…and then kept going.
“We wanted to have enough gas left in the tank to get us racing across the finish line.
We didn’t want to limp across.”
Padalecki remembers the moment it hit him not the decision to end it, but rather the opposite.
But you never want to be the last person at a party.
(Did we mention thatSupernaturalis also kind of psychic?
WhenSupernatural is able to safely resume production, it will.
“She makes Christmas for them and Thanksgiving, birthday parties, and all that.
But Sam and Dean do know the value of a good plan B.
To celebrate 15 years ofSupernatural,pre-order the new issue ofEntertainment Weeklyor both of our collector’s covers.
