The final seven episodes of Supernatural begin airing on The CW on October 8th, but just how much has the COVID-19 pandemic changed plans for the series finale? Only two episodes needed to be finished when the virus forced production to come to a halt, but those are likely to be the most crucial of this fifteenth season of the hit show.
As it turns out, while some tweaks were made, very little has been changed. Talking to TV Line, star Jensen Ackles explained, "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."
Co-showrunner Andrew Dabb elaborated on that point, explaining that those alterations "didn't affect the core parts" of the final two episodes. "We’re still doing everything we wanted to do from a character, plot [and] mythology standpoint. In some cases, we had to simplify the [pathways] to get there."
"For example, for the finale, we had a big, super extravagant thing planned for that episode, and it wasn’t feasible. But we found an alternative to get to the same place, plot-wise and, more importantly, emotionally, that worked great. So it’s about being adaptable. We had to do some rewriting, but nothing that changed fundamentally what the show is or where it was going."
So, while some major changes to the action has been made, Dabb wanted to make it clear to fans that, "the storyline [for the series finale] is unchanged." There are fewer bad guys, but "in terms of plot, in terms of character, nothing is fundamentally different."
That's definitely good news for Supernatural fans, and the fact the ending to the series hasn't been forced to change at least means those working on the show have been able to tell the story they wanted.
Are you guys planning to tune into this final batch of episodes?