Sera Gamble, producer of The CW’s Supernatural, told SCI FI Wire that the writers are brimming with story possibilities for the show’s upcoming fourth season, which The CW recently announced.
“[Series creator and executive producer] Eric [Kripke] has some really strong ideas for how to expand the mythology next season,” Gamble said in an interview. “We’ve been pitching ideas to each other that have [gotten] everybody really excited. … First, we got deeply philosophical, and then we went back to ‘Hey, how can we chop a bunch of people’s heads off with these ideas?’”
Gamble added that the early pickup by The CW means that the writers can set things up as the third season winds down. “We’re especially excited that we heard about the pickup early enough that we can start working on what we’re going to be doing at the beginning of next season now, so we can thread some things in,” she said.
The current third season, which was interrupted by the recently settled writers’ strike, concentrated on the battle by Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) against the demon army unleashed at the end of the previous year. Meanwhile, the season is building to a resolution of Dean’s dilemma: He struck a deal with a demon to trade his soul for Sam’s life. He has only a year to live.
Kripke told Gamble that he has “an idea for a good turn that the mythology could take [in the middle of next season] that’s related to the demon mythology that we’ve been building and that we concentrated on in season three,” Gamble said.
The producers are thinking in terms of a five-year arc for the series, Gamble added. “There are aspects of the mythology that have always been plotted out,” she said. “There’s approximately a five-year plan that’s been in place since the show began.”
But, Gamble added, the details of the fourth season are being honed now. “Additionally, we have a list of several monsters that we’ve been dying to do for a long time that we’re going to get a chance to do now,” she said. “I call it the beer-and-popcorn episodes. They’re really like meat and potatoes. Like, sit down, watch scary things, blood spatter hits the camera, and people scream and clutch each other in fear. And that’s the end of your hour,” she added with a laugh.
The third season will resume with new episodes, starting April 24, building to the season finale, written by Kripke, in which Dean must face the deal he struck with a demon to save Sam’s life. The strike-shortened season has caused the writers to abbreviate some of the planned stories, but Dean’s fate will remain front and center as the season comes to a close, Gamble said, offering a few spoilers.
“The season finale takes place on the very last day before his card gets pulled by the demon,” Gamble said. “It’s a fight to the finish. Several of the players that we’ve been watching deal with this over the course of the season will be in the episode. We said we weren’t going to make it easy for them, and we’ve made it pretty difficult, bordering upon impossible.”
Will Dean survive and elude hell’s clutches? “For all you know, [in the fourth season] it’s going to be Sam with a flashlight in haunted houses with a special cell phone that calls hell,” Gamble said with tongue in cheek. “Everyone has a theory. Everyone will find out soon enough. They just have to wait a few more months.”
Supernatural airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. –Kathie Huddleston
