Original Supernatural Ending Revealed, Cancelled Due to COVID-19 Protocols

When Supernatural ended earlier this year, it was a divisive episode. After fifteen seasons and [...]

By Russ Burlingame

When Supernatural ended earlier this year, it was a divisive episode. After fifteen seasons and more than 300 episodes, it's likely nothing would have been the "perfect" ending for fans -- especially coming on the heels of a penultimate episode that killed off Castiel -- but it seemed obvious to everybody that the Winchester brothers' swan song was a big compromised. The COVID-19 pandemic had shut down production on the fifteenth season just two weeks before the finale would have been shot, and when production resumed months later, Supernatural had to abide by new, COVID-safe production protocols that changed what was possible.

Since the finale -- considered and debated for a long while, obviously -- had already been written, its main story points were sure to be retained -- but a lot of the celebratory nature of the episode ended up being removed. That's a shame, as some of what's described in Supernatural 15 Seasons: The Crew Member's Souvenir, a new book from production designer Jerry Wanek, would likely have taken some of the sting out of the controversial deaths in the last two episodes.

The Supernatural Fangasm Twitter account got an advance copy of the book, and their tweet has been making the rounds since yesterday. It's a screenshot of one page that breaks down the finale that wasn't.

You can see the tweet below, but if you're having a hard time reading the tiny text, it's transcribed here, too.

"Dean was always going to end up in Heaven, and we were always going to see Sam's life in fast-forward, but those final moments were supposed to take place somewhere else.

"When Bob Singer and I sat down to talk about season 15, and our inevitable end, we came up with something that felt like a fitting version of Sam and Dean's Heaven: all the people the boys had met along the way (or, at least, those we could convince to fly to Vancouver) crowded into a re-built Roadhouse, as the band Kansas played our (official unofficial) theme song: 'Carry on Wayward Son.'

"And when we opened back up in August, getting that many people in an enclosed space, much less traveling some of our favorites from LA and making them quarantine two weeks for what would be a half day's work, just wasn't realistic. Even Kansas, always game, didn't feel like they could make that trip, which we completely understood.

"And so that Supernatural ending … ended. I love what we have now, Dean in the car on the open road, but I have to admit that I sometimes think about our original idea — all of Sam and Dean's family and friends, and one of the greatest rock bands ever on a masterpiece of a set, and I miss is … even though it never really existed.

"I miss what it could have been."

You can stream all 15 seasons of Supernatural on Netflix, or buy digital copies at retailers like Amazon Prime Video and Apple. The final season is coming to DVD and Blu-ray on May 25, 2021.

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