Supernatural is one of the longest-running genre shows on TV, and the cast’s reunion project in 2026 perfectly serves to tide fans over until the show’s unavoidable season 16. Supernatural ran for 15 seasons and 327 episodes, making it a constant part of the lives of millions for over a decade. As such, the end of the show came as a blow to many.
Adding to that, Supernatural‘s series finale was not the very best it could be. For a fantasy series that found a perfect finale back in season 5, Eric Kripke’s last as showrunner, and then went on to reinvent itself for another 10 seasons, Supernatural could and should have ended on a better note. Without heavy spoilers, Dean Winchester’s story in that episode was controversial, to say the least.
That is why the Supernatural series finale carries just a decent 7.0 score on IMDB, whereas the Supernatural season 5 finale, which serves as a great jumping off point for those who do not wish to invest that much time into it, boasts a series best 9.7. As such, many fans have not been able to let the show go, waiting for Supernatural season 16 to happen and give the Winchester brothers the epic conclusion they deserve.
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
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.
✓ 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.
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.
✓ 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.
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.
✓ 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.”
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.
✓ 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.
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.
✓ 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.
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.
✓ 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.
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.
✓ 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.
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.
✓ 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.
The Hunt · Family Verdict Your Winchester Standing
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Top hunter — or red-shirt vessel?
As Supernatural turned 21 last Sunday, September 13, I could not help but look back at all the brilliant characters, actors, and storylines the show brought to life every week for 15 seasons. Thankfully, to cap off that walk down memory lane, 2026 gave Supernatural fans the perfect reunion, and it is enough for now while waiting for Supernatural season 16.
2026 Saw Supernatural’s Main Trio Reunite 21 Years After The Show Debuted
While there were no new Supernatural releases this year besides comics books, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins, Supernatural‘s three main pillars as the actors behind Dean, Sam, and Castiel, reunited on the small screen earlier this year. The stars got together for The Boys season 5, episode 5, “One-Shots.” It was amazing to see the core Supernatural trio onscreen together again. Sure, each of them had exciting projects and roles in the last few years, like Ackles as Russell Shaw in Tracker, Padalecki as Cordell Walker in Walker, and Collins as the major Batman villain Harvey Dent/Two-Face in Gotham Knights.
However, seeing the actors share scenes again 21 years after Supernatural started and 6 years since it ended, brought on the nostalgia in spades. You could feel the chemistry between the stars as they played new characters, with Ackles continuing his popular run as The Boys‘ Soldier Boy, while Padalecki and Collins debuted in the Prime Video series in guest roles as Mister Marathon and Malchemical, respectively. Additionally, Supernatural‘s creator, Kripke, is The Boys‘ showrunner, which made this 2026 Supernatural reunion the most emotional it could have been without outright revisiting the show and its characters.
That said, fans did get a snippet of what seeing Ackles, Padalecki, and Collins reprise their Supernatural roles in season 16 could look like. As can be seen in the video above shared by Collins on his official YouTube account, Kripke had the actors do a take of their The Boys scene as their Supernatural characters. The result is hilarious, as the actors embody Dean, Sam, and Cas for the first time in six years, but with The Boys‘ storyline impacting how their dynamic plays out. After Supernatural‘s 25th anniversary last Sunday, rewatching this outtake gave me my needed Supernatural fix.
Why The 2026 Reunion Is Perfect Before Supernatural Season 16
While 2026’s Supernatural cast reunion in The Boys was exciting, fans are still holding out hope for more than that. Having the actors briefly play their Supernatural characters again in that outtake is just another sign that Jensen, Jared, and Misha would be game to return for Supernatural season 16. In fact, all three of them have said something to that effect over the years. Speaking to Colliderin June 2025, Ackles made it sound like a Supernatural revival had the obstacle of his packed schedule at Prime Video.
Since then, Countdown was canceled, The Boys ended, and while he could return for Vought Rising season 2, depending on the superhero series’ performance in 2027, shorter seasons of Supernatural might be doable alongside it. That would match what Padalecki said on the I’ve Never Said This Before podcast in 2024, as the Sam Winchester star claimed that he would love to return to Supernatural as a limited series similar to Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Finally, Collins revealed his Supernatural season 16 idea to ScreenRant in 2025, suggesting time travel to before Cas “gave himself up to the Empty.” Hopefully, Supernatural will return soon.
