The Supernatural panel at the San Diego Comic-Con was full of interesting teases, with the highlight being the unveiling of the first five minutes of the season 4 premiere. As exciting as the panel was, even more information about the upcoming episodes was revealed backstage, where creator Eric Kripke and stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki gathered to talk to the press. BuddyTV was there to chat with the folks behind the CW series, and they were more than happy to dish on what’s coming up for the Winchesters.
While Jensen and Jared discussed what their characters will be going through in season 4, Kripke hinted at an episode that will show the brothers during their high school years. Will fans get a chance to see Sam and Dean as rowdy teenagers?
BEWARE! SEASON 4 SPOILERS AHEAD!
“We’re just starting to talk about it, but I think we’ll do it this season,” Kripke teased. “An episode where the boys investigate a haunting at one of the high schools they used to go to, and then flashback to what the boys’ high school lives were like. We’ll sort of see them played by 18-year-olds and giving people swirlies, or whatever the hell they did. I don’t know yet, we haven’t worked it out.”
Though the storyline featuring the teenage Winchester brothers is still being hashed out, Kripke does know just how much of Dean’s stint in Hell viewers will be seeing. “We’re not really going to see Hell except in quick flashes and those types of moments,” he said. “There isn’t going to be like, fade in, Hell, Dean being poked with a pitchfork. It’s going to be more about his return to Earth, and what that does to you psychologically. He’s still Dean, but deep in his soul he’s been in the worst POW camp ever.”
The separation between Sam and Dean will greatly affect their relationship throughout the season. By the time Dean returns in the season premiere, four months will have passed in Sam’s life. Kripke discussed how this time apart allowed the writers certain freedoms, saying, “The boys have never been able to keep secrets from each other before. Not since season one when they were separate. So to have a period of time where they were separate, and they can surprise each other again, has been really refreshing and fun to write.”
Padalecki also opened up about how Dean’s death will affect Sam. Both of the brothers will be wrestling with their own personal demons throughout the season, and also trying to reconnect after their time apart. “I think Sam and Dean are both more individual, or at least more heady,” Padalecki revealed. “They’ve both done things in the last four months that they’re kind of worried about … I think as we get into the meat of the season, between episodes eight and fifteen, we’re really going to delve into what Sam did for those four months while Dean was gone, and the pain that he’s gone through … His brother was dead. He buried his brother, and then had to deal with it for a couple months, and deal with it however. You know, [he] probably did some things he wasn’t necessarily sure about and proud of. He’s definitely more hard-edged.”
One interesting development that both Kripke and Ackles hinted at is Dean’s increasingly important role in the Supernatural mythology. “For the first time, there’s a lot of story mythology centered around Dean,” Kripke said. “A lot of it was about Sam and being psychic and whatever, and now there’s mysteries about each of them.”
Ackles mentioned how exciting it is to finally have Dean play an important role in the mythology, even if he did have to die to make it happen. “I always figured Dean would come back, otherwise it’s the Sam Winchester show,” Ackles joked. “I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know why. I always figured it would be that they find a way to get me out, and that I would go back to just being Dean and trying to save Sam from whatever the demons had in store for him. But now that I’ve come back and I can’t figure out why or how, it’s really starting to play into the psyche of Dean and what he’s going to go through, and how that’s going to involve himself into the mythology of not just Sam, but the entire show.”
The Winchesters will definitely be experiencing a lot of changes as Supernatural moves into its fourth season, but Kripke hopes that fans are ready to go along for the ride. “I’ll be the first to say when certain episodes or certain seasons suck, but I’m really excited about this one,” he admitted. “We’re giggling like schoolgirls in the writers’ room. We think we’re on to something this year. I think we have some really, really cool stuff in store.”
– Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
