On-Set Interview: Jensen Ackles & Jared Padalecki Talk Supernatural Season 7

We just got back from a location shoot for The CW’s Supernatural (airing Fridays on good CW stations near you!) and we had the opportunity, along with other journalists, to speak with the show’s stars, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, who are currently filming an episode called “Time For A Wedding.” (It might possibly be called “Season Seven, Time For A Wedding.”)

It was a short chat, and one you’ll surely be reading more from on other outlets soon, but here’s some of what the duo had to say. Beware of spoilers!

So what is “Time For A Wedding” about, exactly? Both Jensen and Jared were warned not to tell us who will be getting married, but someone will. “The gist of it is that these characters have been going through a lot,” Jared explains. “We’ve seen Dean in relationships and Sam in relationships. And now, it kind of comes out of the blue, but there is going to be a character who gets married, and it’s kind of confusing to the other character, naturally, but it all spells itself out pretty quickly,” he reveals. The story sounded like a bit of a surprise to Jared himself, who first learned the title of the episode when he received an e-mail with the script. “I saw the title ‘Time For A Wedding’ [and wondered] ‘Who’s getting married?’ And then I read it and I was like ‘WHAT?’ But I guess Episode 135, I guess they’re going to buzz out some tricks on us,” he teases.

The seventh season of Supernatural has taken a darker and scarier turn for the show, and that turn seems to be welcomed by both actors. “I was glad that Season Seven started out scary. I remember after I read the first two episodes, or even three, and starting to film them again, I was like ‘Man, it’s scary again.’ It turned out to be a great arc with Misha and the whole angels and demons arc. We kind of – we didn’t clean it up necessarily, but we didn’t stay as gooey as we’d started out, so it’s nice to have a revert back to the original days,” Jared says. Jensen agrees, adding that the show was getting back to the horror movie genre.

This return to the roots meant losing some of the brothers’ closest allies, which also takes them to the show’s beginnings when they were both more alone. “I think Sam and Dean started out so tough. We didn’t have anybody. He didn’t even have anybody; he came to get me, and then gradually we had this hunter helping us out, Rufus and Ellen and Joe and Misha… and now we lose ’em all. We’re like ‘wait a second. We have to do this by ourselves again’?” Jared says.

“Sera [Gamble] and some of the writers said that ‘we’re going to start stripping away the guys’ comforts and take away the things that they’ve come to rely on’,” Jensen says. “I think it’s just getting back to that early form of Supernatural. That’s great, because that’s why we all fell in love with the show in the beginning.”

“That’s how we found the show and how we found our grounds from which to have the launch pad of Ruby and the demons, and Castiel and the angels, but that’s where we were when we started,” Jared explains. “It’s exciting now that we know we have a core following, and now that we know that we have the support of our network and our studio, obviously. So it’s like ‘let’s put ’em back on their own, and see what happens, and see what we find this time.’ So it’s nice, because it’s not like we’re just going back to the original – our characters still have grown so much. We’re not losing any of that. But we’re now back with a cleaner state to catapult even more storylines,” he adds.

“[Season] Six was a big split,” Jensen says of the times that Sam and Dean seemed to be on different paths last year. “The first half of the season, it was Dean and Sam separated. But we’re definitely back in the saddle again,” he says.

“I guess the flip side of the coin of not having the Bobbys and the Castiels, because we’re out on our own so much, we’re back to relying on each other,” Jared adds. “Whether we’ve had a demon on our side like Ruby, which obviously ended up not being on our side… but we’ve always had someone right there to count on. But now the boys – they’re on to us, so we kind of have to split up, but obviously keep each other as partners.”

This doesn’t mean it will be smooth sailing for the Winchesters in the near future, as Jensen Ackles explains. “Obviously Sam is still dealing with, for lack of better terms, his demons, with himself and the wall falling down and the whole Hell stuff that they actually saw in last week’s episode with Lucifer popping in and out. Dean’s still got to keep a close eye and a close watch on his brother because of that. But it’s good to get them back to working together again, given the six seasons that we spent with these guys, the ups and downs, the valleys, the mountain peaks that we’ve seen with the storylines and the characters themselves. So it’s nice to have them getting back to the basics,” he says.

There’s one ally the brothers had who recently seemed to make his departure, and that’s the boys’ good friend Castiel, as played by Misha Collins. Since we didn’t see a body, could he be back sometime sooner rather than later? “They’re always going to leave everything open,” Jensen says. “Even if they shut the door as much as they can, visually, that door can always be kicked back open.”

“I know Misha is excited about remaining a part [of the show] however we can, and our writers and our fan following have obviously grown to love him,” Jared adds. “He’s always welcome back, and I’m sure it’s not the last we’ve seen of him.”

Supernatural airs Friday nights at 9PM on The CW. Read more of KSiteTV’s Supernatural coverage and come talk about the show on our forum!

Disclaimer: KSiteTV’s visit to the Supernatural studio and travel accommodations were provided by the Warner Bros. Television studio.