Drama surrounding the Winchester boys’ mom will be at the center of the upcoming Season 13 for “Supernatural.”
The stars and producers of the long-running CW drama gathered for a San Diego Comic-Con panel on Saturday, which kicked off with the rock band Kansas performing a live version of “Carry on Wayward Son,” the show’s unofficial theme song.
Co-showrunner Bob Singer teased the outcome of the Season 12 finale, which left Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith) trapped in a rift with Lucifer. Singer told the crowd that Mary is definitely not dead… but conflict arises between her sons, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), who have different views on how to deal with her fate.
“Dean thinks she’s gone, that she went through the rift with Lucifer — Dean is pretty sure that’s curtains for mom, and while he’s bereft, he’s ready to accept that,” Singer told the crowd.
“Sam’s holding onto this hope that she could still be alive — that’s a problem for the guys,” Singer continued. “Dean’s idea is, ‘We’ve got bigger fish to fry.’”
Padalecki agrees that Dean is a bit of a buzzkill at the start of the long-running CW drama’s upcoming batch of episodes. “Dean is kind of a Debbie Downer at the beginning of the season — a ‘Deanie Downer,’” the actor quipped.
Another source of conflict for the brothers in Season 13 is how to deal Jack, a Nephilim who is the son of Lucifer and Kelly Kline (Courtney Ford). Sam thinks Jack shouldn’t be destroyed because he’s half-human, whereas Dean has other plans.
“Dean’s a little more practical: ‘I have an idea — let’s shoot it in the face,’” Ackles said.
The team joked throughout the panel that Misha Collins (Castiel) would not be returning, given that Castiel died in the Season 12 finale. Indeed, the actor showed up midway through the event with his own chair, making him appear much shorter than the ones used by the rest of the team. But fear not: Castiel will in fact be back for Season 13.
Additionally, co-showrunner Andrew Dabb teased the returns of Missouri Moseley (Loretta Devine) and Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes), who is the focus of “Wayward Sisters,” a spinoff in development by Warner Bros. And there could be more familiar faces popping up next season as well.
“Some people who have been long dead in our world are less dead in apocalypse world,” Dabb said.
He also earned one of the biggest cheers of the panel when he said that the show “has a lot of years left.”
“We all truly enjoy each other as people,” Padalecki said. “We have legitimate friendship, aside from working together.”