After 15 seasons and 327 episodes of Supernatural, what story is left to tell? Apparently, the answer is “quite a lot,” as the adventures of John Winchester and Mary Campbell have made The Winchesters a compelling watch on The CW Tuesdays so far. Of course, because there is such a big lore, we have many questions, and fortunately, KSiteTV was able to interview Executive Producer Robbie Thompson – himself a veteran of Supernatural – to try and get some answers, just in time for a new episode “You’re Lost Little Girl” airing tonight at 8PM ET/PT! Check out the interview below.
KSITETV’S CRAIG BYRNE: Is it safe to say we will learn more about John and Mary as characters on Tuesday night?
ROBBIE THOMPSON: You will definitely learn a lot more about John and Mary as characters in Tuesday night’s episode, particularly, about both of them, as a burgeoning couple, and then a little bit more about Mary and her journey to figure out what life could look like if she does end up achieving her goal, which is to leave hunting.
We also meet another character from John’s past.
We will see a character that was teased in the previous episode; a character named Betty who is tied to John’s past before he went to Vietnam. This will be our first opportunity to meet that character, and she’s played beautifully.
The Winchesters has introduced some new characters to the lore such as Carlos and Lata, specifically. Do you know where they end up?
Yes. I will say this much: One of the things that’s been great about both the partners that I have with the studio and the network, but also the partners that I have in JoJo [Fleites] and Nida [Khurshid] is we’ve really kept a dialogue that you always want to know where you’re headed, but you also want to have flexibility in how you get there. I really have to give a lot of credit to both Nida and JoJo. We’ve had a lot of really great conversations about where these characters are going. I really do look at this as a collaboration with all my partners, and I’m very, very lucky to be working with them.
Weird theory time: Is it possible that wherever Dean had gone in the Supernatural episode “In the Beginning” was just where people wanted him to think that he was, and maybe not actually what really happened?
Trying to wrap my head around that one… that’s a fantastic hypothetical. My standard answer for any and all hypotheticals at this stage – snd I promise you and I will have a longer conversation once we unpack everything – is that I am open and excited about any and all theories about where our story is going and where our characters are situated in existing canon. For now, it will remain a mystery, but I’m always excited to hear the possible theories.
For you personally, having written for Supernatural, was the backstory of the Winchesters always something that always interested you when you were writing for the previous show?
I wouldn’t necessarily say it was the actual relationship, but really more the characters that really kind of fascinated me.
As you know, John is a character who was brought to life previously by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Matt Cohen. I was really fascinated by when I watched it initially: the stark contrast in the Jeffrey-John and the Matt-John. I thought it was just a really great piece of writing from Eric Kripke, Jeremy Carver, and the whole gang that was over there at the time – to really show that this was a person who maybe you didn’t expect in that contrast, and it was a great way for Dean in particular to meet that character, or to meet his father in a context that he’d obviously never really seen him before.
The same goes true for Mary. Mary was a character we’ve been fascinated by, and both Sam [Smith] and Amy [Gumenick] who brought her to life previously did such an amazing job of it’s a really complicated character. The character that you meet in the [Supernatural] pilot vs. the character you meet in “In the Beginning” who has been living this secret of from her partner was really, really fascinating to me. It felt like there was more story with both of them to mine. and then obviously, when Jensen and Danneel [Ackles] approached me about this, mining that story in the context of this burgeoning relationship was just the icing on the cake.
I can’t say enough great things about my partners Meg [Donnelly] and Drake [Rodger] who have now put their own spin on these characters. So I wouldn’t say it was necessarily the relationship, at first; it was really the characters that kind of drew me in. The relationship was was an added bonus that got me extra excited when Jensen and Danneel pitched the idea to me.
Are you going to have to write additional verses for the “Fan Fiction” songs?
Great question. Let me put it this way: We have a cast that is incredibly musically inclined, and talented, do I would definitely love at some point to do our own musical episode, and then we’ll figure out what we need to amend, in success, down the road.
We know Tom Welling is going to be coming on as Samuel Campbell. Can you talk about getting Tom for the role, and what we can expect from his take of the on the character?
I’ve got to give credit to my partners, Jensen and Danneel. We knew that one of the thrusts of the season was where Samuel Campbell [went to]. I think we were on the set of the pilot, with the Samuel double in the cemetery at the opening of it, and we were just talking about who it should be. They mentioned Tom, who is a friend of theirs.
It was one of those things where as soon I heard it, I couldn’t unring that bell. You need someone that would be able to bring a certain history and gravitas to the part. You needed someone who could instantly step into the role and play that history. When we had the opportunity to speak with Tom about the role, it was just a perfect meeting of the right actor for the right part at the right time, and his perspective on the character and his perspective on the show just match perfectly with what we were going for.
I think people can expect to see a different side of Tom, but I think you can expect the same fantastic acting, and seeing someone who knows how to play the history and weight of a character, from the jump. We’ll be meeting him sooner rather than later.
He’s announced for Episode 7, right?
I think he is announced for Episode 7.
Is it coincidence that his first episode is the one where we might be seeing Gil McKinney back as Henry Winchester?
It is not a coincidence. We definitely had dads on the brain when we were breaking that episode, and when David H. Goodman and I were writing it. It was definitely not an accident.
Is the first season of The Winchesters only 13 episodes or is there still a possibility for more?
That’s above my pay grade. I look at [the show] as sort of chapters: The first 13 is sort of our first chapter, and if we get more, great; I’ll take it. If they want to do 13 episode chapters, that’s fine, too. But I don’t know the answer.
What do you have to say to the fans who would be reading this?
Thank you so much for tuning in, and for checking out this expansion of the Supernatural universe. I’ve said it before, but I really hope that when people tune in, they get to see what I see every single day, whether I’m on set or in dailies: We have an incredible crew down in New Orleans, and this cast is just dynamite. They really have taken these characters and made them their own. So I would just say to fans, thank you guys for watching, and I’m really excited for you guys to see even more about these amazing characters through these actors’ performances every week.
The Winchesters “You’re Lost Little Girl” airs tonight (October 25) on The CW. Browse KSiteTV for more Winchesters content!
