Supernatural has been on the air for so long that it began to feel like it would never come to an end for as long as Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki could drop one-liners, save people, and hunt things. Unfortunately for fans, news broke in the spring that the show would end after its fifteenth season. While there's still a bunch of episodes to go before the final credits roll, Jensen Ackles is already thinking about what it will be like following the series' end.
Speaking with CinemaBlend's Nick Venable at the 2019 Summer TCA Press Tour, Ackles said this when asked if there's anybody from the cast or crew he feels like he could work with for the rest of his life in anything:
Oh, yeah, any of them. I think there's a reason we've made it for going on 15 years now. It's because, I think, it is easy. You know, if a few years go by and I haven't worked with Misha [Collins], or I haven't worked with Jared [Padalecki], or I haven't worked with some of our producers or writers or directors, I think if we get an opportunity to come back together, it'd be like coming home.
Is it too soon to get emotional about the prospect of the Supernatural guys splitting up for future projects? As much as I've already come up with incredibly unlikely (but fun) ways for Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins all to transition to the Arrow-verse, the end of Supernatural will be an end of an era for them even more than fans who have been watching for nearly a decade and a half already.
Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki have been playing brothers and remain the only two series regular actors to appear in every season of the series since the 2005 premiere, and Misha Collins has been a key part of the Supernatural team since joining as the angel Castiel back in Season 4. Even death hasn't been enough to split the characters apart for long, as they've all been killed off multiple times over the course of Supernatural!
Castiel's Best Death On Supernatural, According To Misha Collins
Now, do Jensen Ackles' comments guarantee that a Supernatural reunion or revival (probably not a spinoff) will happen once he and the rest of the team have had time to miss each other? Definitely not. Does it give reason to hope that there could be more someday, or at least that the Winchester brothers won't get that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ending that Jared Padalecki once pitched? Sure!
Jensen Ackles also shared his thoughts on the reality that, when it felt like nobody ever left Supernatural, now everybody is going to leave. Here's how he put it:
Now we're all [going], yeah. There is a running joke on the the set, because we've all been working together for so long, and there's so many inside jokes, and maybe not necessarily appropriate jokes, which, when you work with people for a long time, you tend to bend the rules a little bit on what's appropriate for the workspace. But we often say that we're just un-hirable anywhere else because we've been together for so long. No one else is going to hire us. So I don't know. It'll be interesting next year, this time. I mean, I have no doubt that everyone we work with both cast and crew, have enough talent and enough left in the tank to go on and do whatever they want.
Although Jensen Ackles was clearly joking about being un-hirable, the cast and crew of Supernatural have been a unit for a long time. All it takes is a look at the bloopers for Supernatural to tell that the actors are very comfortable with each other, and the legendary pranks between them probably wouldn't fly on shows that haven't run for so long with such a tight-knit core of actors. Interestingly, Misha Collins recently revealed that he doesn't think Supernatural would have gotten on the air today.
As difficult as it may be for fans to imagine Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Co. not returning with a new season of Supernatural in the 2020-2021 TV season, it may be even harder to imagine what future projects they could tackle on the small screen. Will they be associated with the Winchesters forever or will they be able to find homes on new TV shows? Or will they make the move to movies, if possible? Or maybe just take a break?
Only time will tell. Jensen Ackles expressed his confidence that everybody at Supernatural has the talent to land new gigs following the end of the show. Ackles said this when asked about what he wants next in his career:
I don't know, man. I don't know. I want to do something that...I want to find either a character or find a story or find a group of people that I want to work with, and want to and dive into, as much as I have with this show. And I know that's going to be a very difficult thing to find, but I'm looking forward to that challenge.
Notably, Jensen Ackles didn't specify if he was hoping for another TV show or to give a movie a shot next. I imagine that he could probably land another CW show, but I also have to wonder if he's ready to move on. Before landing Supernatural, his two most recent big jobs were Dawson's Creek and Smallville, on The WB/CW. Has the time come for him to try something on another platform?
Supernatural fans don't have to worry about what comes next for the cast just yet, though. Season 15 has yet to debut, and there's undoubtedly a lot to look forward to. Jared Padalecki has promised a "version of peace" for the Winchesters in the series finale, although Jensen Ackles had a lot of trouble with the finale until he talked to a certain friend about it.
Supernatural is only one of a few long-running series that will end on The CW in the 2019-2020 TV season, and there will be no shortage of viewing options when fall TV season starts in the not-too-distant future.
