Supernatural's Secret Sequel Proves Season 16 Should Wait

Image via MovieStillsDB Published Jul 26, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The failure of Supernatural's secret sequel spinoff proves that the CW's hit paranormal fantasy series should wait to return for season 16. Though Supernatural fans have been clamoring for news of a proper revival since the show's controversial series finale in 2020, there's been no official word yet on the reunion. Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins, and creator Eric Kripke have all voiced their enthusiasm and willingness to revisit Supernatural's world, with Padalecki even sharing his desire to produce a Gilmore Girls-type limited series. Though a proper Supernatural revival has a long way to go before it graces the small screen, the CW has tried to cash in on the show's continued popularity before. Between 2022 and 2023, the network aired a 13-episode spinoff series titled The Winchesters, focusing on Sam and Dean's parents, John and Mary, as fledgling demon hunters in the 1970s. The show never made it past its first season, earning a surprisingly rare 100% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes but a rather dismal 42% audience score. As it turned out, however, The Winchesters wasn't your average prequel series. Despite the show's vintage '70s setting, the final episode revealed that post-Supernatural finale Dean Winchester had encountered this version of John and Mary after cruising through Heaven and exploring the multiverse, explaining not only his involvement in John and Mary's story (Dean acted as a narrator for the show, too), but the changes to the couple's backstory compared to Supernatural's primary timeline. Given network TV's current climate, the poor fan reception of The Winchesters, and the controversial nature of the Supernatural finale — though the brothers eventually reunited in the afterlife, Sam was forced to live out his days without Dean by his side after the latter was killed during a routine vampire hunt — it might be best for everyone involved to keep Supernatural season 16 on the back burner (for now, at least). The Winchesters Failed To Capture What Made Supernatural So Special MovieStillsDB Though John and Mary Winchester are both compelling characters in their own right — John was a major part of Supernatural's storytelling for multiple seasons, after all, and his distant relationship with his sons affected them deeply — The Winchesters failed to grasp what made Supernatural such a massive success. Rather than focusing primarily on the building relationship between John and Mary and their amateur entrance into the world of demon hunting, the show was turned into an ensemble series, leading to less focused character development, more CW-style melodrama, and a bigger, multiverse-ending threat. While Supernatural's core duo-turned-trio eventually took on the likes of God and the forces of Heaven and Hell, that massive leap from hunting lone demons in weekly cases to preventing massive apocalyptic threats felt earned. Sam and Dean proved themselves over and over again, turning the show into something much more epic and biblical. The Winchesters, however, dove straight into the deep end, introducing a new villainous threat called the Akrida with the power to end the multiverse for good, giving Dean a narratively weak though personally understandable reason to interfere in the Monster Club's lives. The Winchesters' need to prove itself by introducing a bigger bad guy and exploring the multiverse was no doubt a natural consequence of being pitched as a spinoff, prequel, and pseudo-sequel all in one. Still, it didn't do the show any favors. If even Jensen Ackles' on-screen involvement couldn't save the show, who's to say that a Sam and Dean-centric revival will actually be well received? TV Reboots & Revivals Aren't Guaranteed To Succeed Image via MovieStillsDB Supernatural may still have a very active fanbase, but that doesn't necessarily mean a TV revival is guaranteed to succeed, especially in the current entertainment landscape. Supernatural's genre predecessor, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, recently tried to set up a revival after years of rumors and speculation, with Sarah Michelle Gellar set to reprise her most iconic role and Oscar winner Chloé Zhao slated to direct the pilot episode. Though the show had been fully cast, Hulu gracelessly axed the reboot out of nowhere earlier this year, a major blow to fans and Gellar herself. From Lawrence to Lebanon · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Supernatural? “Saving people, hunting things — the family business.” 🚗Baby'67 Chevy Impala 🪶The TrenchcoatCastiel, Angel of the Lord 🔪Demon BladeRuby's knife 📕John's JournalHunter scripture 🎸Wayward SonThe Road So Far RIDE WITH BABY → 01 Supernatural premiered on The WB on September 13, 2005, and ran a record-breaking 15 seasons / 327 episodes through November 2020 across The WB and The CW. The series creator and original showrunner — who'd later create NBC's Timeless and develop Amazon's The Boys — pitched it as a road-trip horror anthology before two brothers took over the centre of the show. Name him. AGreg Berlanti BEric Kripke CJoss Whedon DBryan Fuller ✓ Correct! Eric Kripke. He'd originally pitched the show to Warner Bros. as a tabloid-reporter anthology titled “Tape” before reformulating it around two brothers. Kripke ran the show through Season 5 (the original planned ending), then handed off to Sera Gamble, Jeremy Carver, Andrew Dabb and Robert Singer over the next decade. The Boys (2019–) is essentially Kripke processing the same superhero/horror genre concerns at a much higher budget. ✗ Wrong showrunner. The answer is Eric Kripke. Greg Berlanti is the Arrowverse / DC superhero TV mogul (Arrow, The Flash). Joss Whedon was the Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Firefly creator whose work clearly influenced Supernatural but who has no credit on it. Bryan Fuller did Pushing Daisies and Hannibal. Kripke is the one who took the show from a Vancouver pilot to a fifteen-season behemoth. NEXT → 02 Dean Winchester — the older, classic-rock-loving, demon-blade-wielding brother who introduces himself with “hey, Sammy” and a leather jacket and ends the series in a pickup-bed funeral pyre — was played by an actor whose pre-Supernatural CV included Days of Our Lives (as Eric Brady), Dark Angel (as Alec) and Smallville (as Jason Teague). Name him. AJeffrey Dean Morgan BMisha Collins CJensen Ackles DJared Padalecki ✓ Correct! Jensen Ackles. He'd actually originally auditioned for Sam, the younger brother, before being moved to Dean opposite Jared Padalecki. Ackles directed six episodes of the series himself (his first was Season 6's “Weekend at Bobby's”). Post-Supernatural he reunited with Eric Kripke to play Soldier Boy in Season 3 of The Boys, and headlined the short-lived prequel The Winchesters (2022–23) as a narrating older Dean. ✗ Wrong Winchester. The answer is Jensen Ackles, who plays Dean. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is John Winchester — the brothers' father, who originated the lead-by-a-grizzled-cowboy energy Negan would later inherit. Misha Collins is Castiel. Jared Padalecki is Sam, the younger, taller brother. Ackles plays Dean — the shorter, leather-jacketed, classic-rock-quoting older one. NEXT → 03 Across all 327 episodes, the brothers' constant other than each other was their car — a 1967 Chevrolet model affectionately known as “Baby,” inherited from their father John, with army-men in the ashtrays and Sam and Dean's initials carved in the back seat. Eric Kripke wrote an entire Season 5 episode (“Swan Song”) from the car's perspective. Name the model. ACamaro BChevelle SS CBel Air DImpala ✓ Correct! 1967 Chevrolet Impala — specifically the four-door Sport Sedan, originally chosen by Kripke because its trunk was big enough to hide a body. The production wore through more than two dozen Impalas across the run, since the car gets demolished, dunked, dropped from cliffs, and possessed regularly. Jensen Ackles bought the “hero” Impala used in the final season after the show wrapped in 2020. ✗ Wrong Chevy. The answer is the 1967 Impala, four-door Sport Sedan. The Camaro is too sporty — Kripke specifically wanted a body-in-the-trunk family sedan. The Chevelle SS is a muscle car, and the Bel Air is closer to '50s-cool than '60s-menace. The Impala is “Baby” — chosen because, in Kripke's words, “it could fit four people and a body in the trunk.” NEXT → 04 The Winchester brothers grew up on the road after their mother Mary was murdered — pinned to the ceiling and burned alive by the yellow-eyed demon Azazel — in Sam's nursery on November 2, 1983. The family lived in a Midwestern college town the show returns to repeatedly across the run (most notably in “Home,” S1E9). Name the city. ASioux Falls, South Dakota BPontiac, Illinois CLawrence, Kansas DLebanon, Kansas ✓ Correct! Lawrence, Kansas. Kripke chose the town in part because of its Wizard of Oz adjacency and the “Bleeding Kansas” historical resonance — Lawrence was sacked in 1856 during the pre-Civil-War conflict over slavery, an act of evil literally seared into the local geography. Mary Winchester's nursery fire on November 2, 1983 is the show's foundational trauma; the date and the ceiling-fire image recur all the way to the finale. ✗ Wrong Midwestern town. The answer is Lawrence, Kansas. Sioux Falls, SD is Bobby Singer's hometown and salvage yard. Pontiac, IL is where Dean digs himself out of his own grave at the start of Season 4. Lebanon, KS is where the Men of Letters Bunker is hidden — you may want to remember that one. Lawrence is the home of the fire — and the show's foundational trauma. NEXT → 05 In the Season 4 premiere “Lazarus Rising,” the show pivoted from monster-of-the-week into Heaven-and-Hell mythology by introducing an angel of the Lord — wearing a beige trenchcoat over the body of a Pontiac, Illinois religious tax accountant named Jimmy Novak — who pulls Dean out of Hell and becomes the brothers' near-permanent third. Played by Misha Collins, name the angel. ACastiel BGabriel CUriel DBalthazar ✓ Correct! Castiel — named for Cassiel, the Jewish-mystical angel of solitude and tears. Misha Collins was originally signed for a six-episode arc; Castiel ended up in 145 episodes across twelve seasons, including the controversial Season 15 “Despair” love-confession episode. The trenchcoat (a Burberry knock-off) became so iconic that fans send Collins replicas at conventions, and his on-screen vessel Jimmy Novak became its own minor character. ✗ Wrong angel. The answer is Castiel. Gabriel turns up later as the Trickster (Richard Speight Jr.). Uriel is Cas's Season 4 angel partner, who gets killed off as a Lucifer sympathiser. Balthazar (Sebastian Roché) is Cas's snarky friend introduced in Season 6. Castiel is the trenchcoat-wearing tax-accountant-vessel angel who pulls Dean out of Hell — and the show's third lead from Season 4 onward. NEXT → 06 Supernatural famously opted not to use a proper title-card theme — instead, every season finale opens with a “The Road So Far” recap montage scored to the same 1976 prog-rock track by an American band who, in a happy coincidence, share their name with the brothers' home state. Name the song. A“Renegade” by Styx B“More Than a Feeling” by Boston C“(Don't Fear) The Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult D“Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas ✓ Correct! “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas, off 1976's Leftoverture. Eric Kripke chose it for the Season 1 finale and made it a tradition every finale thereafter. Kansas frontman Steve Walsh said in interviews that Supernatural's use revived the song so completely it now makes more annual royalties from streaming than the band did from its 1976 release. The song also closes out the series finale “Carry On” (2020). ✗ Wrong classic-rock cue. The answer is “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas. Renegade, More Than a Feeling and Don't Fear the Reaper are all Supernatural-vibe tracks from the same era and several appear in episodes — but the season-finale ritual is reserved for Kansas's track. Wayward, Kansas, brothers… Kripke layered every available pun into the show's signature musical cue. NEXT → 07 The brothers' surrogate father — a gruff, trucker-hat-wearing, Sioux Falls salvage-yard owner whose phone line is in every fake FBI agent's wallet, who calls the boys “idjits,” and who takes a shotgun to a Leviathan in the Season 7 episode that finally kills him — is played by an actor who in HBO's Deadwood played Whitney Ellsworth, the kindly miner who marries Alma Garret. Name the character. ARufus Turner BGarth Fitzgerald CJody Mills DBobby Singer ✓ Correct! Bobby Singer, played by Jim Beaver. Eric Kripke literally named the character after his Supernatural co-executive-producer Robert Singer — in part as a gag, in part as a dare to write a self-aware character around the joke. Bobby dies at the end of Season 7's “Death's Door” (E10) but returns repeatedly in flashback, alternate universes, and in the show's last few seasons as a parallel-Earth Bobby. Beaver's Deadwood role is Ellsworth, who marries Alma and is shot dead by Hearst's men. ✗ Wrong hunter. The answer is Bobby Singer. Rufus Turner (Steven Williams) is Bobby's old-friend rival hunter. Garth Fitzgerald IV (DJ Qualls) is the goofier hunter who later turns out to be a werewolf. Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) is the Sioux Falls sheriff who becomes a found-family figure. Bobby is the salvage-yard idjit-caller, named for Kripke's own co-EP Robert Singer. NEXT → 08 In Season 8 (“As Time Goes By,” E12), the brothers discover their grandfather Henry Winchester was part of a secret academic-magic order, and inherit its abandoned base — a 1950s steel-and-concrete bunker hidden under an unassuming Kansas town's main street that becomes their home for the rest of the series. The town has fewer than 250 people and is geographically near the centre of the contiguous United States. Name it. ATopeka BLebanon CWichita DManhattan ✓ Correct! Lebanon, Kansas. Population fluctuates around 218 and a stone marker near town claims it as the geographic centre of the contiguous 48 states — perfect for an organisation hiding from the supernatural. The Men of Letters Bunker becomes the closest thing to a home base the brothers have ever had: kitchen, library, dungeon, garage. The real Lebanon's Main Street has become a Supernatural pilgrimage site since the show ended in 2020. ✗ Wrong Kansas town. The answer is Lebanon — population 218, near the geographic centre of the contiguous US, perfect for a hidden order's bunker. Topeka is the state capital. Wichita is the largest city. Manhattan is home to Kansas State University. Lebanon, with its tiny Main Street and middle-of-nowhere geography, is where the Men of Letters Bunker hides — and where the brothers finally have a home. REVEAL MY RATING → The Hunt · Family Verdict Your Winchester Standing 🚗 / 8 Top hunter — or red-shirt vessel? ⤴ ANOTHER ROUND Teen Wolf's 2023 streaming movie sequel was a disappointing mess, despite Crystal Reed's return as beloved character Allison Argent. Frasier was canceled after two seasons. Sex and the City's And Just Like That... was critically panned for its entire three-season run. Arrested Development's return on Netflix was a massive letdown. The X-Files' revival with Mulder and Scully was filled with inconsistencies and unnecessary retcons. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life was widely criticized for Rory's portrayal. That's not to say that every single revival or reboot is an inherently bad idea. In rare cases, it can work. Doctor Who's original 2005 NuWho reboot was a resounding success. That was 20 years ago, though, and its most recent seasons failed to recreate that same magic. Now the franchise's entire future is in limbo. With a show like Supernatural, which has one of the most devoted fan bases in TV history, reviving the series in the current climate would be a massive risk. The creators need time to find the right story, one that doesn't feel like a Winchesters-esque gimmick. The multiverse can't always be the answer. The Supernatural Comics Are Keeping The Show's Most Important Legacy Alive Image via MovieStillsDB Thankfully, Supernatural continues to live on in other media. Most recently, Dynamite Entertainment launched a new series of Supernatural comics, with the first 10-issue run scheduled to come to an end in August. Set between seasons 1 and 2, the comics by Greg Pak and Eder Messias take the story back to its roots, with each issue depicting Sam and Dean as they hunt down a new threat while a shadowy villain follows their every move. Arguably, this comic run is what The Winchesters should have been. Still, Dynamite's Supernatural stories benefit from exploring Sam and Dean's relationship in the early days of their hunting partnership; after all, they were the glue that held the entire series together, through showrunner transitions, narrative pivots, and new character introductions. Because the comics are set between seasons, there's no real danger of influencing or changing canon, giving the creatives free rein to explore a much-loved yet long-forgotten era of the show. Sam and Dean's comic story will continue in September with a super-sized one-shot, Supernatural: Wayward Special #1, which will launch a new event with the brothers each headlining their own interconnected comic series. For now, keeping Sam and Dean's story alive in the pages of comics might be the best course of action for the franchise. It would be a genuine shame to rush Supernatural's revival and ruin the show's legacy. A proper 16th season presents a lot of risks, ones the show arguably doesn't need to take. What's wrong with letting Sam and Dean experience their well-deserved peace together in Heaven for a few more years? These wayward sons have done enough. Release Date 2005 - 2020 Network The WB, The CW Showrunner Eric Kripke Directors Philip Sgriccia, John F. Showalter, Kim Manners, Thomas J. Wright, Charles Beeson, Guy Norman Bee, Richard Speight Jr., Mike Rohl, John Badham, Steve Boyum, Amyn Kaderali, Jensen Ackles, Tim Andrew, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeannot Szwarc, P.J. Pesce, Nina Lopez-Corrado, James L. Conway, Amanda Tapping, J. Miller Tobin, Stefan Pleszczynski, John MacCarthy, Jerry Wanek, Ben Edlund Writers Meredith Glynn, Davy Perez, Raelle Tucker, Cathryn Humphris, Brett Matthews, Nancy Won, John Bring, Ben Acker, Daniel Knauf, David Ehrman, James Krieg, Trey Callaway Franchise(s) Supernatural Creator(s) Eric Kripke