Dean Winchester is headed into uncharted territory, according to the man who plays him, Jensen Ackles. At the end of ‘Supernatural’ Season 13, Dean was possessed by the apocalypse world’s archangel Michael. After thirteen years on the air, how much more can the writers come up with to put the Winchesters through the wringer?
At least for Ackles, he gets the opportunity to stretch some new acting muscles. Of Dean’s possession, Ackles said “I realized this was uncharted territory… I was a little nervous.” He added:
“[The possession has] been almost a daunting challenge. Jared [Padalecki] has had an opportunity to play different characters. He’s gotten to play an angel, hes gotten to play Lucifer… and not just different variations of Sam Winchester, whereas [until now,] Dean has only played different variations of Dean… The feedback has been good. It’s been more feedback than I’ve gotten in the last 13 years.”
‘Supernatural’ is one of the longest-running shows on TV (not counting perennials like ‘The Simpsons’ and ‘Doctor Who‘), but it remains among The CW’s best-rated. It also has the added incentive of being popular with young females and generating great sales of licensed merchandise, which makes it more desirable to keep on the air.
At this point, it will be up to the producers and cast to decide when and if ‘Supernatural’ leaves the air. While it seems that there is no real desire to wrap up the Winchesters’ saga, they have decided to lighten the workload a little. In June, The CW announced that the upcoming Season 14 would drop from 23 to 20 episodes. There was no explanation given, which raised a few red flags, but as it turns out, The CW’s veteran workhorse is just scaling back for the sake of the cast and crew.
As Ackles said:
“Shaving a couple of episodes off gives us almost an extra month out of our year, which when you only get about a two-and-half-month hiatus, it goes really quickly.”
Good for them!
‘Supernatural’ will remain on Thursday nights this fall. The Season 14 premiere airs on Thursday, October 11, at 8pm EST.
Source: TV Line
