SUNDAY, JULY 24
NERD HQ
Cool news on Day 1 of filming Season 12: Supernatural is gonna have an exclusive cover for Comic-Con! #WBSDCC
What do the British Men of Letters want? The British Men of Letters haven't allowed a "Supernatural" related death in their territory since 1965. One of their members, Lady Toni Bevell, made quite an entrance, showing up in the Winchesters' Kansas bunker and shooting at Sam. Though his character is the target, Padalecki understands where she is coming from. "She really thinks of Sam and Dean as villains," he says. "To her, they started the apocalypse and nearly got God killed."
Who will save Sam? Castiel will be "extremely motivated to get Sam back," executive producer Andrew Dabb says. "He does things we know Cas is capable of but we haven't seen him do in recent years."
What does the return of the boys' mother mean? Mary learns "these two kids [she left behind] have grown up into men who are hunters – something she tried to avoid," Dabb says. "She's kind of their mother in name only. She's meeting her sons again, but they are not what she expected in some ways, she is not what they expected."
Where the hell is Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino)? "Cas feels like it's his mission to try and make that right," Singer says. Crowley is also on Lucifer's trail, but unlike the Winchesters and Castiel, he doesn't merely want to stop him, he wants payback for humilating him in front of his former minions," Dabb says. I think it's very personal for Crowley, in a way a lot of stuff isn't."
What's next for Rowena (Ruth Connell)? The Scottish witch…may take her wicked ways down a notch now that she "has seen that being all-powerful isn't all it's cracked up to be," Singer says. "But one always has to be suspicious of Rowena."
jaredpadalecki Got to witness a real-life proposal from the stage in Hall H. Like I said, comic-con, I love you. 🙂
Osric Chau– opening video S12 teaser
Flicks video pt1 pt2
SUPERNATURAL stars Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Mark Sheppard and Misha Collins — along with producers Robert Singer and Andrew Dabb — took to the stage at San Diego Comic-Con to tease what’s to come in season 12.
11.22 – We opened with a sizzle reel from last season, featuring amusing fan reactions to episodes.
11.24 – We were also treated to scenes from the premiere. Dean asks his mother if she’s real and as he approaches her, she takes him down to the ground. There’s a few scenes of Mary and Dean in the car and Sam tied up in the back of a trunk and being burned by a blowtorch. Cas is fighting with an angel blade on a road and Mary seems confused by cell phones. Mary also says “I never wanted this for you and Sam”.
11.30 – Moderators Richard Speight and Rob Benedict introduce Jensen as having launched his career on “The Bowlegged and the Beautiful”.
11.31 – “You don’t get bigger than God,” Singer said. “We’re going to try to get back to basics a little bit. Tell smaller stories. Some good old-fashioned horror stories. We’ve set up the British MOL and they’ll be part of what we’re doing. [Also in] the first part of the season, there’s a hunt for Lucifer.”
11.33 – Padalecki said that “Sam Winchester is alive. Because he’s not a lose-chester”. We will find out more about Toni, who is part of the British MOL and more about their worldwide society. We’ll also find out more about what they want from Sam and Dean in the episodes to come.
11.35 – How will the boys respond to Mary’s return? Ackles said that it presents the show with a dynamic we have never had. When Mary died, Sam was a baby and Dean was a child. “Dean grew up and Sam just got larger,” he joked. The children that she know, they’re now men, so the relationship is “kind of non-existent. It’s going to be an interesting situation of them trying to bridge that massive gap that occurred over the past 30 some odd years”. But how will she plug herself into their lives? Will that leave the brothers vulnerable? For the longest time the best way to get to one of the brothers is to trap one and get the other to come running, but throwing Mary into the mix can make them vulnerable too. He doesn’t know exactly where it will take the boys, but he’s excited for it.
11.37 – Samantha Smith (Mary Winchester) joins the panel.
11.38 – Smith said that Mary’s sons are now “older and taller than [she] is.” She’s always loved Mary and now she gets a chance to experience her from a whole new perspective. And now she doesn’t have to pass through as a ghost, so she’s having a lot of fun. “It could go anywhere”.
11.39 – Padalecki said that one of the things that SUPERNATURAL has been able to do is to explore “both sides of the equation”. One of the biggest things about the show is family and it will be an interesting dynamic to see someone like Mary who is 100% of Sam and Dean’s blood, we’ll find out more about how family is formed and what it means. It’s about “exploring that dynamic between two brothers and two sons again. Sam always had an issue with John for obvious reasons probably. But he dealt with it. Now Sam and Dean with their mother is starting anew.” Does blood make you family or is it about more than just sharing DNA?
11.42 – Dabb said that Mary has been mythologized to the brothers. They’re meeting someone who they have some knowledge of, but they don’t really know her. “We didn’t want things to be super easy”. She was raised a hunter and walked away from it like Sam did. But now she’s getting back into it. This is something they deeply want, but they understand family can be a vulnerability. Cas knows how important Mary has been to Sam and Dean, so he has a specific response to her as well.
11.43 – Collins said that Cas is back to a little bit of “Cas from season 4″. He thinks Cas’ wings are still broken, but he’s got a lot of his mojo. He’s angry and he’s got a fighting spirit and he’s after Lucifer. Collins also joked that Cas is tattling a lot to Mary.
11.49 – Sheppard said there’s a hint that “my family dynamic might be returning in a slightly more expanded scale. I genuinely love Ruth, but I cannot stand Rowena”.
11.50 – Ruth O’Connell also makes an appearance at the panel. “Hello, Mother,” Sheppard says dryly.
11.51 – Will any old characters return? Jody and Donna will be back, as will Claire and Alex. Gavin (Crowley’s son) will be back as well.
11.52 – Dabb said Rowena had a big move this past season. She’s wanted to be the power behind five different thrones since we met her. In season 12 she’s taking a step back and we’ll meet her “in kind of a funny and cool mindset”. But then she’ll be drawn back in. For Crowley, he’s been dethroned by Lucifer. Early on, revenge will be a driving force. In the future, Crowley’s relationship with the boys will keep developing.
11.54 – Singer said that Lucifer is going to try out a few different vessels, but he needs a strong one. The first vessel that he feels comfortable with is a rock star who is trying to make a comeback. His name will be Vince and we’ll see him in a few episodes early on. Vince will be played by Rick Springfield (he shot his first scene on Friday)! Dabb said that ruling Heaven or Hell lacks an appeal now. But being Lucifer comes with baggage, so he’s trying to take a bit of a vacation.
11.58 – Collins said that Cas became Lucifer because he was really down on himself (a bit of self-loathing and self-sacrifice).
11.59 – Padalecki said that he and Ackles “walked into a restaurant and someone said ‘Damn, are you here to kill ghosts or something?’ He seemed genuinely concerned.” He said sometimes when the light flickers or it gets cold, he says “it’s OK, guys, I got this”. Ackles said that the paranormal would probably be smart enough to steer clear of two guys who have played hunters for over a decade. “That being said, if we ever do run into an issue, I feel like I could handle myself”.
12.05 – In a surprise move, a questioner asks his girlfriend if she’ll marry him. The cast applauds.
12.07 – Ackles says the other day he asked his 3 year old daughter if Padalecki’s sons are her friends and she said “no, they’re my boys”. He assumes their kids are going to want to “stay in the family business”.
12.09 – Padalecki says that we have never seen the brothers have a proper dynamic as “being sons”. They get a chance to be boys again with Mary.
12.11 – Ackles says he’s looking forward to seeing the hunter side of Mary and the similarities in how she deals with the supernatural and how the boys deal with it.
Full video including gag reel
Press room videos
Jared Jensen
Withanaccent – Jared-tortured Jensen CTL-Alt-Del
TVaddict Spoilers and PR videos
SUPERNATURAL stars Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Mark Sheppard and Misha Collins — along with executive producers Robert Singer and Andrew Dabb — spoke to reporters at Comic-Con about season 12. Guest stars Samantha Smith (Mary Winchester) and Ruth O’Connell (Rowena) also visited the press room.
The Hunt for Sam. The search for Sam takes over the first “couple of episodes,” Singer said. Sam is kind of going through hell with the British MOL. One thing they found interesting with this situation is that Sam thinks Dean is dead. “As far as he knew, the bomb blew up and that’s what saved the world. So he’s really excited to see Dean when Dean shows up.” Plus, Toni tells him his brother is dead. “That doesn’t take up too many episodes. We get that over with pretty quickly but I think [those episodes are] action-packed and all our characters are involved. Everybody has their own piece in those stories.” He thinks we get season off with a bang and will see everyone involved.
Dean Goes “TAKEN” When Sam Gets Captured. Dean doesn’t know what’s going on with Sam at first, but Sam thinks Dean is dead. Ackles said that Sam got shot at the end of the season and we see in the trailer for season 12 that he’s been captured. “[Sam] has no reason to believe Dean would even be coming for him. Dean’s got to figure out quickly what has happened, where [Sam[ is and it turns into a bit of TAKEN [the movie].” In fact, Ackles said the writers even kind of plagiarized a line from the TAKEN film. Not the “particular set of skills” line, but more like the “when I find you and I will find you” speech.
Exploring More About Mary’s Past. Dabb said that we’ll see Mary’s presence “for a while”. She’s not intended to be a one episode character and we will explore more about her “over the course of the season”. We will also learn more about parts of Mary’s history that we haven’t seen before. For example, we’ve been under the impression that once Mary married John she settled down and stopped hunting. “But we’re going to find out that that’s maybe not the whole story.” Expect to see flashbacks to explore this.
Sam’s Reaction to Mary? The brothers will both react differently to meeting their mother, Padalecki said. “For me, what’s most exciting for playing Sam with Mary back in the picture, [is that]…we never saw Sam be a son. We saw him with his dad…but it was contentious. So now we see Sam with him mom, who he doesn’t….he never really knew her and has no ill will towards her. He never really knew her and Dean knew Mom, albeit for four years. But [Dean] has memories of Mom, pictures of Mom. He remembers the sandwiches she used to make. Sam doesn’t know that. He just knows that this is his mother and he loves her. But he doesn’t know her. I think Sam feels towards Mary the way Dean feels towards Sam. He wants to keep Mary safe. I mean, he lost Mary, he never really knew her. But Mary’s a hunter” and if Sam and Dean are going off on a hunt, then their mother will want to go with them. But Sam just wants to protect her, even if he should trust her and her skills. Sam blames his father for all the hunting stuff, Padalecki went on to explain, but you could argue it’s really Mary’s fault or the fault of her lineage. That being said, the “boys know that this is their life, this is what they’re good at, this is the way they can best help the world. So I think it’s a double-edged sword, but they’re grateful they’re in this life because they can do it better than anyone else. But I think we’re going to see Sam probably not want his mom to go out and hunt.” There will be “a few cute moments where Mary’s like ‘well, I’m your mother, you gotta listen’. It’s weird, but it’s kind of right.”
Dean’s Reaction to Mary. Dean’s major reaction to Mary was shown in the sizzle reel from the panel, which happens “face down in the dirt because she flips him down,” Ackles teased. She’s his mother, but she’s also a stranger. He was a toddler when she died and they don’t know each other very well. “That adjustment is going to be very tricky. Mary is also coming back and finding out her two sons are not only grown up and live in a world she is completely unfamiliar with as far as modern technology, but they’re also living in a world that she tried so desperately to get out of when she was alive, which is the hunter world. So now to find out that both of her sons are, indeed, hunters, I think is going to be [a lot] for her to process.” For Dean as well, “the vulnerability of having his mother now is going to be tricky to navigate because essentially it’s another way to force Dean or Sam to do something. Usually Dean only had to worry about his brother, but now he’s really going to have to worry about his mother and his brother.”
The British Men of Letters. Padalecki said that the British MOL and the Winchesters didn’t start off on the right foot at the end of season 11. We’ll soon come to learn that the British MOL are much more regimented and structured. “They know certain parts about the Winchesters that are true, but look bad on paper (ie. they started the Apocalypse, but they also stopped it too) and the Brits aren’t happy about it. But I hope we can come to an understanding.”
The New Lucifer. As announced during the panel, Rick Springfield will be playing a Lucifer vessel. Singer pointed out that Lucifer needs the vessel to say yes to being possessed. “He’s very good at the con.” One of the challenging things about the situation is that Vince (Springfield’s character) starts off as a guy who is “pretty sympathetic and he’s lost his wife. He’s tortured. Once he accepts Lucifer, he is evil incarnate. As an acting exercise it’s pretty intense. He’s written as pretty evil. It’s a good part.” Singer also confirmed that Springfield will play a little guitar on the show.
The Return of the Thule. They have something really cool coming up in episode 12.05 – it will be the “triumphant or not-so-triumphant” return for the Thule, who have decided to bring back Hitler. But the SUPERNATURAL version of Hitler is described as a “psychotic Richard Simmons.” Apparently “Sam and Dean are going to find Hitler,” Dabb teased. “And I think that’s opening up some interesting doors for us just in terms of doing more crazy stuff.”
'Supernatural' Interview: Jensen Ackles on Having Mary Back, Looking for Sam and More
Watch the video interview with Jensen Ackles
Here are the highlights:
"There's a lot of mixed emotions" for Dean having his mother back. "He's confused, he's excited, but you have to remember, she's a stranger to him and he's a stranger to her."
Mary's going to have to adjust to life 30+ years later, and that includes things like modern technology and the fact that her sons are doing exactly what "she tried so desperately to get out of when she was alive": hunting.
"There's going to be some tension, there's going to be some emotion," to having Mary back. "Sure, there's joy, but there's a lot of hesitancy there too because now she's also another avenue to get at the brothers. Something happens to her… There's vulnerability that comes with her presence."
When the season begins, Dean doesn't know that the London chapter of the Men of Letters have gotten their hands on Sam and Sam doesn't know that Dean's alive. Sam's thinking his brother's not coming for him, and Dean's expecting to show up at the bunker with, "Hey, Mom's back." That's where the new season picks up, and "then it very quickly becomes Liam Neeson from Taken."
They're going to be "getting back to the basis of what Supernatural is." Eventually Sam and Dean are reunited (though he hadn't read that script yet), and "it'll get back to them taking cases, driving down the road, listening to rock music and hunting things that go bump in the night," Ackles previewed. "There are obviously these added elements of the Men of Letters, Mom, Lucifer's running wild, so it'll tricky to navigate."
While Dean would like to do something more final with whatever the supernatural world is, "it's what he knows, so he's going to go back to doing what he does best."
ShowbizJunkies Jared Jensen
Nerd HQ Supernatural panel video
SPN live.me video Mark, Misha and Jensen,
Nerd HQ Jared panel 2 video
Jared live.me video
Sam and Dean's New Vulnerability, Lucifer vs. Cas and 'Old-Fashioned Horror Stories Mom’s comeback “presents a dynamic that we haven’t had in quite a while — or ever,” Jensen Ackles previewed. “When mom left, Sam was a baby and Dean was a child. The children that she knew are now men, so the relationship is kind of nonexistent because there isn’t one. It’s an interesting situation, them trying to bridge that massive gap.” Since Mary wasn’t around for most of the boys’ lives, “She’s been mythologized to them,” executive producer Andrew Dabb said. “[But] she has a lot in common with them [as hunters]. She’ll be coming back into that.” (It might not necessarily be a happy return to hunting, though. A teaser trailer for Season 12 featured Mary telling Dean, “I never wanted this for you and Sam.”)
“We find out more about what family means and how you become family,” Jared Padalecki shared. “Sam and Dean with their mother are starting anew. Does blood make you family, or is it more than just DNA?”
For actress Samantha Smith, returning as Mary has been a treat. “There’s a lot to consider — being dead, now alive with a big gap in the middle,” she shared. “My sons are now older and taller than I am…. I’ve always loved Mary and to be able to experience her from a whole different perspective is incredibly fun for me.”
* Season 12’s family theme will also be explored via Crowley and Rowena. “There’s a hint that my family dynamic may be returning in a slightly more expanded scale, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that turns out — because it never turns out well,” actor Mark Sheppard said. Ruth Connell, who plays Crowley’s mom, predicted their relationship will go “downhill fast.”
* On the topic of how you follow up a season featuring God and The Darkness, EP Robert Singer said, “We can’t top all that, so we’re going to try to get back to basics a little bit, tell smaller stories. Some good old-fashioned horror stories.”
* “We find out more about the Men of Letters and their worldwide society,” Padalecki previewed. “We’ll learn more about what [the British chapter] wants for themselves and from Sam and Dean.” But as seen in the Season 11 cliffhanger, in which Lady Toni shot Sam, “They’re not off to a great start.”
* Sheriff Jody, Donna, Claire, Alex and Crowley’s son Gavin will all be back.
* When asked about the birthday photo he sent to Padalecki, of their kids as the next generation of hunters, Ackles said his daughter called Padalecki’s sons not her friends, but “my boys,” so “we might not have a choice in the matter” regarding their offspring continuing “in the family business.”
Supernatural: Jensen Ackles, EP Preview Dean and Sam's 'Happy' Reunion, Taken Homage
When Supernatural returns for Season 12 on Thursday, Oct. 13 (The CW, 9/8c), Dean and Sam will initially be separated by outside forces and a false presumption of death. But when has that ever kept the siblings from finding their way back to one another?
The brothers’ quest to do just that is complicated by a number of factors. After being shot by Lady Toni in the Season 11 finale, “Sam’s going through hell with the British Men of Letters” who have captured the hunter, executive producer Robert Singer previews. He’s also under the impression that Dean defeated The Darkness and, thus, is dead. “As far as [Sam] knows, the bomb blew up, and that’s what saved the world.”
Adds star Jensen Ackles: Sammy “has no reason to believe Dean would even be coming for him.”
Meanwhile, the elder Winchester is in the dark about his little bro’s whereabouts — but not for long. “Dean’s got to figure out quickly what has happened, where he is, and then it turns into a bit of Taken,” Ackles shares. There’s even a direct shout-out to Liam Neeson’s famous “I will find you” line from the film franchise, the actor reveals.
The good news: That rescue mission “doesn’t take up too many episodes – we get that over with pretty quickly – but they’re action-packed, and all our characters are involved,” Singer says.
And once the Winchesters are reunited, it’s nothing but love. Declares Singer: “They’re happy to see each other.”