“My initial reaction was I don’t like it”: When Jenson Ackles opened up about his feelings on Supernatural’s ending

It is a known fact that viewers of Supernatural were divided by the show’s ending. Supernatural premiered in 2005 and in its 15-season run, the series depicted the adventurous journey of the Winchester brothers, Dean and Sam, as they fought with numerous supernatural creatures.

After their journey, which involved going to hell and heaven, the ending of the show in 2020 left fans divided, as Jensen Ackles’s Dean was killed. However, it wasn’t just us who were impacted by the ending. Ackles was affected, too. The actor, who played Dean, took time to accept the ending of his character. In 2022, Ackles revealed that initially he was not onboard with Dean's fate. On Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast, Inside of You, he said:

"My initial reaction was, I don't like it.”

However, he didn’t convey his thoughts as it was upto the writers to decide. He just needed time to get used to it, until he came to accept it, with help from the show creator, Eric Kripke.

More on this in our story.

Jensen Ackles had a hard time accepting Dean Winchester’s ending in Supernatural

Sam and Dean had an unpredictable, adventurous journey throughout Supernatural, encountering numerous life-threatening situations that involved ghosts, hellhounds, and even demons. They also made a journey to hell and back, which made the end more shocking.

In the final episode of the series, titled Carry On, Dean and Sam solve the unresolved case of their father involving the Vampires. While fighting them, Dean gets attacked by one of the Vampires, resulting in the shocking and emotional death of Dean. When the episode aired, many fans were not able to accept the end. Jensen talked about this divide among fans in the Inside of You podcast and shared that none of the opinions regarding the ending of Supernatural are wrong, as he harboured both opinions about the ending.

As mentioned above, he did not like the idea of Dean being killed and wanted to think about it more. He also shared about how he always thought it would be Sam who would end up being the martyr in the end, but never saw his character Dean dying.

He stated:

"I didn't give them an overwhelming response. I was like 'Okay, I'm gonna sleep on it.' Because it's a big thing, I don't want to mess this up. So I slept on it, and about a week went by, and I went to my wife and I was like 'I'm just really bumping on this.' And she was like, 'Is it because Dean dies?' And I'm like 'Maybe. Maybe I'm just too close to that character and I just don't want to see him go.'"

He later shared his thoughts with the writer and show creator, Eric Kripke, who left after season 5, as he wanted an outside opinion. He said:

"I called him, and he had not heard what they were planning, so I told him, and he did the same thing I did. He said, 'Let me sleep on this, kind of get some clarity on it and I'll phone you tomorrow.'"

He continued:

"So he ended up sending me this very, incredibly well-written email explaining why he thought this was a great ending, and it just put things in perspective for me, and from then on I was on board."

With Kripke’s help, Jensen understood and accepted that Dean’s ending was a great way to wrap up the series. The emotional farewell between the brothers marked one of the crucial moments in their story. Their eventual reunion in heaven after Sam’s death, having lived a normal and fulfilling life, might be the perfect ending that we could have had.

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Also Read: 7 Times the Winchester brothers from Supernatural went through a very emotional phase

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