With 'Supernatural' Coming to an End, Will We Ever Get a Spinoff?

Since 2005, Supernatural has been a part of The CW's lineup. Actually, that's not even true. Supernatural outlived The WB and is older than The CW. Not a lot of shows can claim the same. But, alas, all good things must end. And as God/Chuck once said, "Endings are impossible. You try to tie up every loose end, but you never can."

Though Supernatural is coming to an end, the show has long acknowledged that it's impossible to tie everything up in a neat bow. There's bound to be more characters we won't be able to say goodbye to, more storylines left unfinished. So doesn't that mean that the popular show could potentially get a spinoff so those characters and those storylines can live on? Well, not exactly.

Supernatural is no stranger to spinoffs. First, there was the Ghostfacers web series that never made it to the TV screen. 

Then, you had Bloodlines, which was immediately trashed by fans. A backdoor pilot was thrown randomly into Season 9 for Bloodlines, in which the story was barely tied back into Sam and Dean's story and included none of the characters that fans had grown to love over the years from Supernatural.

Then there was Wayward Sisters. A backdoor pilot for the series was put into Season 13 of its parent series and, in contrast to the previous one, fans were immediately in love. Mainly because the new show would focus on many of the beloved female characters from the original series. 

The name of the new show came from the term "Wayward Daughters" which was in reference to the show's somewhat theme song, Kansas' "Carry on Wayward Son". Sam and Dean are often referred to as "Wayward Sons" and the women of the show, particularly Sheriffs Donna Hanscum (Briana Buckmaster) and Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes), became "Wayward Daughters".

Though the pilot episode did well, The CW opted not to move forward with it. Why? The CW decided that they would either move forward with The Vampire Diaries' second spinoff, Legacies, or move forward with Wayward Sisters, but they decided they could not do both. Understandably, fans were left heartbroken over the decision to ax a show filled with characters they'd grown to love but never got their time to shine.

Although many petitions were created demanding The CW rethink the decision, the network's president Mark Pedowitz said, “We are big fans of the characters and the women who played those characters… We hope they continue on as guest stars on Supernatural… But we did not feel creatively that the show was where we wanted it to be. And we felt we had a better shot with Legacies.”

Since the show's cancelation, the two original stars, Kim and Briana, have since created the Wayward Podcast together. The podcast itself does not focus on Supernatural but often includes guests from the series.

Is it safe to say that Supernatural fans probably don't like President Mark Pedowitz much? Not only did he kill Wayward Sisters, but he also seems to have killed all other attempts at spinoffs. Although he says he has a good reason. 

Speaking during a press tour ahead of Season 15, Mark told reporters, "I’ve been involved in two spinoffs that did not connect. We’ve had no further discussions whatsoever in terms of a Supernatural spinoff. I tend to believe that, at this point, the show’s essence is Jared and Jensen.”

“We all came to understand that the guys wanted to go out still relevant and they wanted to go be with their families and see what else was out there in the world," he said. "You know what, as we always said, when they’re ready to stop, we’ll stop."

As the show's stars, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins, admitted in recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, alongside co-showrunner Andrew Dabb, they'd been planning an "exit strategy" since Season 12. It seems that Mark did exactly what he said The CW would do — they stopped when the stars wanted to stop.

Like a lot of shows, Supernatural had to stop production due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. It was a particularly low blow for the cast and crew of the show, who wanted the series to go out with a bang. "We made it 325 episodes in, and to be stopped a mere two episodes before the end feels deeply frustrating," Misha told EW.

According to Andrew, they filmed all the way to Episode 18, but the issue is that the visual effects and sound departments have been shut down for the time being which means even filmed episodes can't be completed. As of now, there is no set return date for the rest of the series, although Andrew has confirmed that its return is "not a matter of 'if', it's a matter of 'when.'"