User blog:Gcheung28/Supernatural Q&A at SDCC 2015

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Wikia got to interview the cast and creators behind Supernatural in the pressroom at San Diego Comic-Con! We were there with Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester), Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester), and Mark Sheppard as well as Executive Producers Jeremy Carver and Andrew Dabb. Misha Collins (Castiel) was there as well, but we sadly couldn't talk with him due to lack of time! We asked you to submit some questions last week, so keep scrolling to read about the Darkness, how Jared is an "emotional baby," Jensen's love of directing, and more.

Jeremy Carver
Q: You ended last season with the Darkness coming. The boys started something so heinous and bad for the world, are the boys going to be responsible for this in a way that turns the audience upside?
 * Carver: Well, if this sounds goofy, more than we think, more important is what's on the screen and what the boys think. So to completely ignore it would be to ignore a very big elephant in the room which is, when they are alone and they are drinking a beer (like they do every episode), that they have to have that moment where they're like, "Have we been looking after each other kind of in spite of the greater good?" One could argue in the last couple of seasons, even though it feels like a victory, maybe a day later you start to really sort out what happened there. And in the finale, some bad happened and of course that causes great drama for the next season which is the whole point, but, most importantly, the boys are asking themselves the same question and dealing with that head on.

Q: And that dialogue they had in the finale was a bit about that.
 * Carver: Right! And that sentiment carries on, yeah.

Q: At your first con, you said you had a 3 year plan. And now, you've reached the end of the 3 year plan and we're in year 4. Where do you see this idea of the Darkness going and how many more seasons do you have in this arc?
 * Carver: Well, let me tell you, I actually haven't reached the end of that 3 year plan. That was, I think about year 9, I realized we were just going to keep on going. So there are elements and bits of that, things that exist in the mythology now that we keep touching on. I'm not going to go into it too much but that notion is still there. Now look, it could still change because the Darkness was not in the 3 year plan. That's just something that comes out of the greatness of the writers room and all that stuff, but there are pieces of that that still exist and are not irrelevant. They just had to be accordioned a bit when I realized that this wasn't stopping any time soon.

Q: It looks like the brothers are really along and you keep killing off all their really good friends. We have Castiel left but who are you going to kill off that will force them to be more alone and dependent on each other?
 * Carver: Well, I would never say who else we're going to kill off, but I would say it's a fair statement to say we've pretty much killed everybody and I personally don't know how you keep the stakes in a show unless you kill people who are growing closer and closer to these boys. The great thing about this show is that the way the mythology has expanded, there are so many different ways for a character or a beloved character who has been killed off to still be a part of the show. I never like to say so and so is coming back, but there should be some finality to a death at least until the season starts so we can mourn them a little bit! I don't think it's a bad thing to mourn somebody. In fact, I think that the show is doing hopefully a job well done because you care enough about someone. I think the question is where are you going to find that other space in the universe for that person, and I think that's the challenge.

Andrew Dabb
Q: So, how dark is the Darkness?
 * Dabb: The Darkness, I mean, as she evolves she's going to be as dark as it gets, I think. The fun thing about it is you're dealing with something that isn't "more". It kind of pre-existed before the light, but it's not super defined so you can make it what you want. When we do big bads on Supernatural, generally they tend to be big bad by committee. You know, the angels and the demons, the Leviathans which were under Dick Roman but there were a lot of voices in that world. Whereas with the Darkness, this is a character that comes in, is very strong, and knows exactly what it's going for and will go for it without any compunction. That doesn't mean the character is going to come in and be monolithically evil or anything like that. It's a character, like with all our good characters, we want to develop and we want to show a humorous side, a vindictive side, and everything else! At the end of the day, you know, it's called the Darkness for a reason! It knows what it wants and will kind of do anything to get us to that point.

Q: How is she, or it, going to manifest itself? Is it going to take over a body or is it just going to be an inky black substance that sort of creeps around?
 * Dabb: Well, I will say without getting too much into the spoilers that our bad guys have always worked best for us when they wear a human face. When you can have a really talented actor and have that person dramatize the character, you know, Misha, Mark, Rowena, Ruth, Abbadon, etc., I will say that, however it manifests, it will have a face.

Q: And a hot body?
 * Dabb: I mean, yeah, it's the CW so you have to!

Q: Are you guys ever going to have a spinoff? There was an episode with a Doberman that reminded me of Star Trek and one with a family in Chicago and I was hoping both of them might get spinoffs?
 * Dabb: You know, the episode in Chicago was slated and we were kind of exploring that idea. It's something we're still thinking about but at the same time there's so much genre programming out right now that it's what's new that you can bring to the table. For us, we have the luxury of, you know, we all have a really good day job. A day job we all really love. So if we can find the right idea we'd love to do something, but right now I don't think there's "nothing on the stove," I guess you could say.

Q: Was there an idea that you guys had that you felt like you want to bring it back and maybe tweak it a little bit or give it a new spin?
 * Dabb: That's very interesting because one of the things you see for that I think might be the tablets? Some of that had to do with the tablets opening up some really cool stuff for us. Initially it was the Hell tablet and then it became the Angel tablet and it kind of grew for us in that way. But also, Osric Chau playing Kevin Tran was so awesome that you kind of want to bring him back over and over again, and his development on the show is one of my favorite parts of the show because you saw somebody that came in as a little bit of a broadly drawn character, and I don't mean that in a bad way, but he was a one shot character who evolved over time in a way that I think was really cool. It speaks really strongly of Osric that he was able to do that and speaks really strongly of him as an actor.

Q: Are we finally going to see God again?
 * Dabb: Well, when you're fighting something like the Darkness, someone like God would come in really handy. Whether he actually comes in is something of a question.

Mark Sheppard
Q: Fans are missing the Crowley and Dean friendship. Do you think there's a possibility of seeing them together again?
 * Sheppard: It ain't over until I say it's over.

Q: Crowley has major mommy issues. Can you give us a clue as to what's going to happen in the next season?
 * Sheppard: I'm dead!

Q: Well no one is really dead, especially if you're a devil.
 * Sheppard: Well, I'm dead now!

Q: Okay, then where do demons go when they die?
 * Sheppard: ...Fresno.

Q: I remember an interview a while back when you also didn't give us a lot of information about the show!
 * Sheppard: You've all gotten lazy! You expect us to do all your fanfiction writing for you. All your like "ooh so if Misha and Dean"...write it yourself!

Q: So how much do you like interacting with fans and what they're creating outside what the show creates?
 * Sheppard: I love them, but it depends on what they're creating. Anything created with passion and love tends to have some impetus. Fans are everything. We're all fans. I've said it 100 times. I have a huge mistrust of people that aren't a fan of something. If you don't love something then what's the point?

Q: So does Crowley have mother issues?
 * Sheppard: Crowley doesn't have any mother issues. Fergus has mother issues. The trouble is when you start delving into the backstory in a way, you get into the issue of how much is it Fergus. So if you start scraping away at the humanity of Crowley, which is Fergus underneath there, buried, how much of that are you exposing and how vulnerable are you making him in the situation. I think he knows absolutely what she was doing. Crowley has never been stupid, but I think in the end it's a huge jump that she's suddenly able to do things that she wasn't able to do.

Q: Is that terrifying or exciting?
 * Sheppard: There's no point. He's dead so he doesn't have much...

Q: Just in that moment before he died, was he like "That's terrible" or "Oh my god, I've got a mother who can do that to me."
 * Sheppard: I don't know if it was "I've got a mother that can do that," but there's a part of Crowley that is like "Cool." Any display of any kind of power that way is kind of enticing. He does appreciate a good spell. As we say, "It never goes well with witches."

Q: Was there a fan of something here that you were a big fan of? A show or anything?
 * Sheppard: There were a ton of people I got to see. Got to introduce myself to the new Doctor, Peter is really nice. I saw Steven and Sue, and Matt. I love Matt. It's a lot of fun to play with people I know. You're going into something with a bunch of collaborators. And that's how I feel about Supernatural! We know what we're doing and we're fighting really hard to make it exciting. We make it look easy sometimes, but it's not easy. Jensen is a fantastic director and works his butt off.

Q: Do you have any desire to direct?
 * Sheppard: I mean I do direct. I direct films. But we'll see. If they let me, they let me.

Jared Padalecki
Q: So how were the first four days of filming?
 * Padalecki: I told Jensen, "I need to get back to work so I can relax." I spent the summer chasing around my kids, so it's nice to get back to work and Jensen's very capable hands as a director. I'm really excited! I love where the show is this year. We've had so many years where it's like so many different reasons that are at odds. One of the greatest things about the Darkness is that it's pre-Biblical and predates Heaven and Hell and Castiel and Crowley and God, and so the boys don't know what they're up against, but they're up against it together. So for me, I already like where Sam and Dean are compared to seasons in the past.

Q: So that was a crazy emotional end to the season, what was it like filming it?
 * Padalecki: Crazy and emotional! I cried when I read it. I cried when I read "Death's Door" when Bobby died. Every now and again, you're so invested with something--and I've also been very public with my own struggles with anxiety and depression or whatever--so reading something like that where Sam is basically going like "Ok, alright, it's been a good run. Go ahead." It makes me tear up just thinking about it. So it was crazy and emotional, and it was one of those times where I guess, as an actor, I don't believe in ever trying to cry. Just don't do it. If the tears aren't coming, don't just sit there and try (makes crying face). Just don't! So I hate it when directors ask, I mean it doesn't happen to me because I'm a faucet. I'm a little emotional baby. But we'll have guest cast and directors will be like, "So are you going to cry?" And they're not going to cry! You can be emotionally torn up without shedding tears. Anyway, I had to bring myself back because of where Sam was and Dean was. I just remember reading on the page what happens and Dean's choice ultimately opens this crazy force. It was really powerful and it was a great launchpad to where we're starting Season 11. To the boys, it's you and I, we're together.

Q: Do you think a large part of that acceptance in end in Season 11 is because that speech Sam had for Dean where he says, "I'll never think you're not a good man"; it just seemed to be such a kernel of truth between them.
 * Padalecki: Yes, I think so. I think that entire scene, that entire sacrifice Dean made, the speech Sam made is just very brutally honest. That was his death speech. It was a "That's all I had to say now do what you gotta do." It was very powerful and I watched it in England. I hadn't seen the scene and so I asked the sound editor if I could watch it. I asked, "Hey, can you rewind it a bit and let it play?" And he was like "Sure." So we watched it and I was getting teary. And it ended, and I could hear from the sound booth: "Fuck..." I was like, "Thanks, man!" So it was a hell of a scene. It was really powerful, especially with everything I've gone through in my life personally it just resonated. And I think that's just part of Supernatural, it's about angels and demons and the king of Hell and ghouls and zombies. I mean it's about these outlandish things but the kernels of truths about humanity and about sacrifice and loyalty and love, they resonate no matter the medium in which you pack them. So you know it's a fun show to tell all these stories.

Q: I feel like that's a real thing we get with these genre shows, both the deep philosophical issues and the personal issues that are able to be explored that you don't get in some shows.
 * Padalecki: Absolutely! And we can make something tangible like this Darkness that feels overwhelming and is overwhelming. We're making it into a tangible person but it's like human beings have these obstacles that seem overwhelming and seem insurmountable, and we're just a crazy show that can tell it in a fun, geeky way.

Q: Who would you love to play the Darkness?
 * Padalecki: Hmm, (someone says "Jen" and Jared laughs) typecast? I would have loved to seen Camille play it, but I think her character has already been cast.

Jensen Ackles
Q: Jeremy talked a lot about the boys being on the same page going into Season 11 and in the finale there's a moment where you're saying everyone around us dies and there are constantly negative consequences for what we do. Will there still be not exactly individual conflicts but the boys being in different emotional states going into the next season?
 * Ackles: Yea, sure, I think that obviously it's not Season 1 where one is coming from college and one is coming from a fishing trip. There has been a decade of stories and highs and lows and poor choices made and good choices made and big victories and big losses, so there's a lot of history with this fight. I think there is a bit of Ctrl + alt + delete when it comes to what's happening and I'm excited about that because the brothers aren't fighting for each other. Dean is not afflicted with the Mark of Cain, Sam isn't afflicted with demon blood. For the last several years, there's been kind of this them trying to save one another. They're fine, they're back in the car, and they're motoring down the highway so sure, everything that happens in the past is going to play into that. They're still going to bicker like brothers, but at least they're not sacrificing values or themselves for the purpose of the other one. They're doing this together and they're finding a common goal.

Q: But do you think that all of the things they have gone through and all of the times they've saved each other is going to affect how they work when they don't have to fight against each other?
 * Ackles: That's interesting. I think there's a comfortability there between the brothers that they just know how they work. I will say that hopefully there's less secrets between the brothers this year and they can have a common ground. In my opinion, that makes for both light and dark episodes. You can have the funny ones and the dramatic ones, but, uh, I don't write the show.

Q: Since you're directing, how easy or hard is it to turn the director part of yourself and the actor part of yourself on and off?
 * Ackles: It's been difficult. It's been something I've had a hard time with in the past, but it's gotten easier. I didn't realize the mental state of where I was as an actor because I was always just that when I walked on a set. So it wasn't something I was cognizant of, but then when I had to be directing and then switch over to acting mode, I realized I was thinking with two sides of my brain. It took me a couple of takes to get into the "Dean" mode. It's gotten easier. I wouldn't say it's easy, but it's easier.

Q: Is there a part you enjoy more? Directing or acting?
 * Ackles: Acting will always be my first love. I enjoy and get inspired and get rewarded by the challenges that is directing. I have a ton of respect for directors because it's a lot of work. I think because of that it's why I like it. I'm a glutton for punishment!

Q: So this is your 5th episode directing, and technology through the life of the show has changed. Even in your time as a director, have you seen a shift in technology that affects what you can then do as a director?
 * Ackles: Absolutely! We've even this year got a new camera. We still have the 3 we'd been filming on last year but we have the mini. It's not going to change anything when it comes to, like, film quality or anything like that, but it's going to make camera operating a little easier. It's 10 pounds lighter, so when you're doing these action sequences, cameramen are holding these things that are like 40 pounds or something on their shoulder. While 10 pounds is a lot, especially when you're holding it on your shoulder, just what we're going to be able to do with it will be a bit more mobile.

Q: And you had that drone footage which was amazing!
 * Ackles: We had drone footage! That was incredible. One of the things I'm using in my episode that might actually be something we might start using a bit, that we didn't in the past because it was so tedious, is a green screen. So we haven't done green screen in many years. We've done it a few times for specialty things but we're using it actually for the Impala. Because if you notice, most of our Impala scenes are shot at night and the outside you see the lights and highway lights going by. That's all simulated or practically simulated. So we've actually got guys with flashlights running down and we've created a big thing that actually doesn't require guys to run with flashlights anymore. It's a big rotating wheel that kind of comes around. There have been other shows that have come to our set and have taken pictures of our setup because they want to do it. But yea we always have those Impala scenes at night because that's the look we created. The specific look I have to create for this episode is not a highway at night, but dusk in town. And instead of live driving, which was one option I was thinking of, like sticking the camera in the backseat and have us actually drive around. I'm pretty good at it now, but that was still going to be too time consuming. So we're actually going to rig up a 360 GoPro thing and sticking it in a car and actually driving it around and get plates, and then we're going to superimpose that on the green screen. But there are a couple of shots that special effects is like "We wouldn't have been able to do this 5 years ago." So we're actually implementing new technology into this episode that might be used the rest of the season.

Q: Final question, your character is a huge fan of beer, pies, women, etc. What are you personally a fan of currently?
 * Ackles: Beer, pies, and women generally! When they ask me what I have in common with Dean, it's a lot of his likes.

That's all, folks! Stay tuned for more from Wikia on New York Comic Con and next year's SDCC. Since we didn't get a chance to talk with Misha, here's a picture of him from the pressroom looking adorably confused: