“Supernatural To End After Five Seasons: Eric Kripke reveals five-year plan to ensure show goes out on high...” Supernatural: Official Magazine #2, Feb/March 2008.
In an announcement that will come as a surprise to many, Supernatural creator Eric Kripke has revealed that he would be happy to see the show concluded after five seasons. In a recent interview with The Official Magazine, the showrunner declared, “We have a plan in place for five season. After that, who knows? Personally, I want the show to end with season five. When you’re telling a story, it’s so much better to know when the end is coming so you can plan for it and build to it.”
Although this news will come as a bitter blow to fans (the majority of whom would like to see Supernatural run and run), Kripke’s reasoning is that this way the show will go out on top. “If Supernatural goes into season six, seven, and beyond, you can expect a lot of weddings, clip shows, Hawaii vacations, and other shark-jumping activities,” the creator continues with a chuckle. “But I think Jared, Jensen, [co-showrunner] Bob Singer, and I, would rather go out with a bang with season five, and then go home and sleep for a year.”
As Kripke is well aware, however, even the best-laid plans can go awry -- especially if they’re thrown a curveball in the form of a nationwide writers’ strike. At this magazine went to press, the Supernatural writing team (which includes Eric Kripke), along with every other TV, movie and radio writer in America have stopped writing at the behest of the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
The Writers Guild, which has more than 12,000 members, is striking over residuals for new media, specifically Internet downloads. This downing of tools has led to late night chat shows such as Late Show with David Letterman closing up shop, with industry experts predicting that all weekly dramas would soon follow, should no deal be struck. The last such strike, in 1988, lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry an estimated $500 million dollars.
As with every writer in America, it’s a situation that Kripke is keen to see resolved, and quickly. When asked about the second half of season three, he could say only this: “Difficult to answer that, sadly, because at the moment the Writers Guild is on strike, and the longer it continues, the greater the danger that there won’t BE a second half of season three. All of the writers and producers are despondent over this. We love the show and the only thing we want is to get back to work.”
Here’s hoping that by the time you read this, Eric Kripke’s wish will have come true, and our favorite shows will be back where they belong!
"the six-/seven-year player that I want it to be" (2006, Oct 19)
"two-and-a-half-, three-year plan" (2007, Jan 19)
"five or six year run" (2007, Jan 25)
"about two seasons worth" "middle of the fourth season" (2007, Sep 28)
"We have about five seasons worked out, but those are the roughest cocktail-napkin sketches of a road map." (2008, Jan 10)Â
"When you start a show, the plans are not set in stone. They're really mutable, cocktail napkin sketches." (2010, Sep 24)
"If I've said in the past that I had this five year plan from the beginning, I was lying." (2014, Nov 11)
