Supernatural Has Already Set Up Season 16 With 3 Big Reveals

Supernatural came to an end with a divisive finale nearly six years ago, but the appetite for more of Sam and Dean Winchester is still going strong. The tongue-in-cheek reunion on The Boys wasn’t the same as seeing Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles back as their iconic characters, and Misha Collins’ presence was a reminder of how the original series never gave Castiel proper closure. While it remains to be seen if the show will return, there are already several reveals that set up season 16 to pick up where Supernatural left off.

A lot of that is due to how one of the longest-running sci-fi/fantasy TV shows has kept telling new stories in the years since the series finale ended with both Winchesters in the afterlife. The final episode in 2020 was an emotional ride that delivered an early death for Dean while Sam lived a long life without his older brother, before they reunited in Heaven. It was an ending that felt surprisingly final, considering how many times Supernatural killed off and then brought back the Winchesters over the course of 15 seasons.

In the years since, the Supernatural story has continued via a series of comics as well as a spinoff on The CW. The comics are set between the first and second seasons, so they technically don’t set up a way for the brothers to return to live-action, but that’s not the case for The Winchesters. The spinoff, which ran for one season, covered an alternate version of Mary Campbell and John Winchester’s love story, and the premise was just enough removed from Supernatural canon that Jensen Ackles reprising his role didn’t break any of the original series’ rules.

Even though the spinoff never became the smash hit that the original was for more than a decade, the revelations courtesy of The Winchesters, when combined with how Supernatural tied off its loose ends, could set up a solid sixteenth season.

The Winchesters Revealed That Being Dead Doesn’t Stop Dean From Hunting Monsters

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Death never stopped the Winchester brothers from hunting monsters during the 15 seasons of Supernatural until the very end, and that proved to be the case for Dean on The Winchesters as well. Jensen Ackles was the narrator from the beginning, but it wasn’t until the finale that The Winchesters revealed exactly how Dean kept hunting monsters despite going to Heaven. The show was set during the interval in Supernatural‘s finale between when Dean began driving the Impala through the afterlife and when Sam would eventually die.

The hook was the Akrida, the villains who put the lives of people in danger throughout the multiverse. Dean broke the rules of Heaven to interfere, to save Sam’s life as well as to give at least one version of John and Mary a chance at real happiness. Jack turned up to reprimand Dean for stepping out of Heaven to interfere, but ultimately gave the go-ahead for him to finish what he started.

The implication was that Dean would head back to his happy afterlife after giving John and Mary his journal, and Sam was technically still alive at this point in the timeline, but The Winchesters set a precedent: not even death has to stop the brothers from hunting monsters.

God Made Contingency Plans For His Defeat

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The Winchesters toed the line of contradicting Supernatural canon with the introduction of the Akrida, a species of monsters who tried to invade Earths across the multiverse and destroy all of existence. They were created by the Rob Benedict version of God, before Alexander Calvert’s Jack took over the role. God designed the Akrida as his contingency plan to destroy reality, in case he failed in doing so himself.

The Akrida were defeated at the end of season 1, but Supernatural fans saw Sam and Dean fight the same villains many times over the years, even after they seemed to be defeated for good. Plus, God creating the Akrida as a failsafe opened the door for the Supernatural multiverse to introduce new monsters designed by the deity that require the Winchesters to defeat.

If God did it once with these monsters, perhaps he did it in other ways himself, or even created a backdoor that would allow him to come back himself. Even if that wasn’t part of the plan when Supernatural ended, the reveal on The Winchesters that God was still causing problems after being defeated sets up the forces of a familiar big bad for the brothers to battle in a sixteenth season.

Sam’s Son Seemingly Becomes A Hunter

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One of the most criticized elements of the finale (other than Dean getting unceremoniously killed off) was the flash-forward to Sam’s life after losing his brother. Fans who’d been hoping that Sam would get a happy ending with Eileen didn’t get more than a blurry look at the unnamed woman he ended up with, and Sam’s old-age makeup wasn’t exactly the most convincing in the history of television. That said, the reveal that Sam had named his son Dean was certainly touching, and one detail indicated that he was the next generation of the Winchester family to become a hunter.

Dean Jr. was by his father’s side when he died of old age at the end of the finale, and one quick shot of his arm was just enough to fuel speculation about what he was doing with his life. Sam’s son had an anti-possession tattoo on his forearm to guarantee that he’d be protected from being possessed by demons.

While it’s technically possible that Sam insisted on tattooing his child in that way even if he pursued a normal, monster-free line of work, the camera focusing on the mark seemed like a sign that Dean Jr. was continuing the family business of saving people and hunting things. Besides, Supernatural didn’t spend 15 seasons introducing elements like time travel and multiverses just for a little thing like death to prevent season 16 finding a way for Sam and Dean to somehow work with Dean Jr. to hunt monsters.

Time travel could be a solid solution for a season 16 to include an adult version of Dean Jr. without aging up Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, and that twist would really bring the brothers full-circle. Time travel allowed them to reunite with both of their parents years after they’d died, after all. Add Misha Collins in some way to resolve the long-standing Castiel controversy, and Supernatural could easily return for a sixteenth season that makes sense. Or, at least makes as much sense as anybody could hope for when it comes to the convoluted world of Supernatural.

Release Date

2005 – 2020

Showrunner

Eric Kripke