SPOILERS for Supernatural. After so many years spent hunting monsters, ghosts, vampires, demons, and even God himself, it’s hard to imagine a ending to Supernatural that would have satisfied everyone. Turns out, even Dean Winchester himself wasn’t a fan… at least at first.
The ending of Supernatural found Dean Winchester dying while on the job and Sam living out his life before dying as an old man and reuniting with his brother in heaven. Jensen Ackles recently spoke on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum about his initial reaction to the Supernatural ending.
I don’t think there’s a wrong opinion about it, I think the people that had problems with it are validated and the people that enjoyed it are validated. I was in both camps, I spent time in both camps. This is no secret, the very first time we had ever heard what was going to happen at the end of the season, Jared and I flew out to LA and we went to the writers room before the season started and we all sat down and they essentially pitched us how they wanted to wrap up the show, which was the first time in Supernatural history that had ever happened. My initial reaction was, ‘I don’t like this.’ I didn’t [say it right out], I was trying to be respectful, so I said, ‘Hmm, okay.’
After trying to sleep with the idea of Dean dying, Jensen Ackles just couldn’t make peace with it. “For some reason, I always thought that if someone was going to go, it’d be Sam,” Ackles explained, “as kind of the martyr and Dean would then be left to kind of stumble through the rest of his life, mourning his brother and the rest of his family and it would be a sad existence, but that was how it’d happen, or we’d both go, like a Butch and Sundance kind of thing.” Ackles’ wife then suggested that he contact series creator Eric Kripke (who had left after the fifth season) for guidance. “So he ended up sending me this incredibly well-written email explaining why he thought this was a great ending and it just put things in perspective for me and from then on, I was onboard,” Ackles said. “I’m sure I could’ve done that, I’m sure I could’ve called Bob or called Andrew, who was showrunner at that time, and probably had a similar conversation, but I just wanted somebody from an outsider’s perspective, a different viewpoint, to help me process that.” What did you think of the Supernatural ending?