'Supernatural': All the news you need as long-running series prepares to resume shooting after pandemic hiatus
'Supernatural' fans have long been used to "Hellatus" -- the term for the mid-season hiatus. But the pandemic hiatus has been unexpected and a long one at that. With just two episodes left to shoot, the cast and crew had to stop filming as lockdown rules came into effect mid-March. Till now fans have only seen episodes up to Season 15's 13th one 'Destiny's Child' on March 23 and will still have seven episodes to savor till the show has its final curtain call.
Now, the news is trickling in that the show will finally resume filming while maintaining the norms to ensure the safety of the actors and crew. This has been confirmed thanks to videos and pictures released by the leads Jensen Ackles, Jarad Padalecki, and Misha Collins. The most recent was a video call with senator Cory Booker and Texas senatorial candidate MJ Hegar, who are both die-hard fans of the show on August 11. Jensen Ackles teased some vital information about the two final episodes during the call, saying: "Episode 19 feels kind of like the season finale for 15, and episode 20 feels like the series finale." He also added, "There have been some adjustments made from the scripts that we were going to shoot in March to the scripts that we're shooting now. We've had to accommodate a pandemic."
But even before that, Padalecki and Ackles showed off their quarantine beards as they were about to reach the halfway mark on their 14-day full-quarantine in Vancouver, ahead of filming the final two episodes. They did the live Q&A from quarantine in their Vancouver apartments for Creation Entertainment’s "virtual fan experience", where they spoke about spending time in isolation with only their dogs for company. Their Vancouver apartments, only used while they shoot the show, has been their base for so long that both have collected quite a lot of stuff without meaning to and with it a lot of memories, which they are sorting through now that they are wrapping up for good.
Ackles and Padalecki, or J2 as their fans call them, also had a Zoom session that featured the band Kansas (whose song 'Wayward Son' is the show's signature tune) hosted by their co-star Misha Collins as part of his pandemic special '2020 GISH Hunt' for fans.
Their Canadian government-mandated full quarantine started at 7 pm on August 2 and should end at 7 pm on August 16, which is a Sunday. 'Hollywood North Buzz', who participated in the virtual fan convention, tweeted out choice quotes from the interaction. In their chat with fans, Ackles and Padalecki said, "two hairy dudes" who look like Sam and Dean would be "running out into the surf for no reason…frolicking" on the day their quarantine ends. Shooting will tentatively resume on August 18 and extend till September 11.
Misha Collins and Alex Calvert are reportedly also in Vancouver to start shooting once filming resumes. The final seven episodes will also reportedly feature God aka Chuck (Rob Benedict), God’s sister Amara/the Darkness (Emily Swallow), Sam and Dean’s half-brother Adam/Michael’s vessel (Jake Abel), angel Uriel (Robert Wisdom) and Charlie (Felicia Day). Hopefully, the ending will be more sweet than bitter -- in the times of coronavirus, we need it.
