The CW’s Supernatural is heading into its 15th and final season this fall making the much-loved series’ appearance at San Diego Comic-Con on Sunday the final time the cast and executive producers would grace the Hall H stage. It was a deeply emotional moment for fans of the long-running series, but it wasn’t just fans reduced to tears. Series stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles were also emotional, breaking down in tears themselves.
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During the emotional panel, moderators Richard Speight Jr. and Rob Benedict got things started by asking the stars how they felt about the series’ ending, a question that prompted Padalecki to turn suggest that they could all just start crying so he’d feel a bit less awkward.
Welp, Jared and Jensen cried so now we’re all crying in the final #Supernatural panel. Love these dudes and this fandom so much. What an amazing ride. pic.twitter.com/WW3H6cNxGF
— Laura Prudom (@LauInLA) July 21, 2019
“Can we all just start crying so I don’t feel so weird?” Padalecki said.
It was announced earlier this year that Season 15 would be the last for Supernatural, news that shocked fans at the time. Since the announcement, cast and crew have consistently had positive things to say about the show’s conclusion.
“I don’t think anybody who was on this show in season four, or five, or one could’ve predicted what the show was gonna look like in season 15 so I don’t know that in specific ways the finale would be the same as what Eric Kripke had in mind, but I think in general ways there’s always been a finale out there.” showrunner Andrew Dabb told ComicBook.com earlier this year.
“I couldn’t tell you right now that we even have a specific interpretation of that, but we know the target we’re working towards and we know that when and if that day comes, and maybe I’ll be here and maybe I won’t, but when and if that day comes, I think we’ll be able to embrace it.” Dabb continued. “But it’s not something we are looking to rush and it’s not something we’re looking to undermine. I think these characters have been on a very, very long — longer than most people would have expected — journey, and that journey’s been going to the same place for a long time.”
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Ackles previously said during a convention appearance earlier this year. “It was months and months, if not years, of discussion between he and I, between the rest of the cast, between the crew, between our writers, between our producers, between the studio, between the network. Nobody wanted to see this show fizzle out. I think that it was everyone wanting to do the biggest service to the show that we could by going out strong. It just seemed like the writing was kind of on the wall as to when that was happening. Everybody kind of felt that it was coming soon, and so it was just taking that leap of faith of going like, ‘Well guys, let’s get out the paint and paint that finish line because what we’ve accomplished is unlike any other.’”
It was a similar sentiment that Ackles shared on Sunday, remarking how proud he was of the work they’d done for so long.
“Looking back I’m really proud of the work that this team has done for this long. To do a show is not easy. To make television is not as easy as people may think… It takes a lot of very talented people to give you guys the best product we can make. I’m really proud of that product. After this long on a show to still truly love what we do and be proud to hang my hat on that at the end of the day, that’s what I’m going to take.”
Supernatural‘s final season will begin on October 10th at 8/7c on The CW.
