Supernatural is the longest-running American live-action fantasy TV series.
How many Supernatural seasons aired?
The show has a total of 15 seasons. Season 1 debuted on September 13th, 2005 on The CW Network and the series concluded with season 15, with the series finale airing on November 19th, 2020.
How many Supernatural episodes are there?
The complete 15 seasons of Supernatural are comprised of 327 episodes.
What was Supernatural about?
Created by Eric Kripke, Supernatural followed the Winchester brothers, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), as they hunt demons, ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural beings.
Why did Supernatural end?
There were a number of factors that contributed to the end of Supernatural, including:
Declining ratings
Supernatural‘s ratings had been on the decline for several years. In its first season, the show averaged 4.04 million viewers. By its fifteenth season, the show was averaging 1.21 million viewers. This decline in ratings is likely due to a number of factors, including the increasing popularity of streaming services, which have given viewers more options for watching TV shows.
Creative fatigue
Supernatural had been on the air for 15 years, and the writers and producers were struggling to come up with fresh storylines. The show had explored a wide range of supernatural creatures and storylines, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to come up with new and exciting ideas.
The cast’s desire to move on
The two lead actors, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, were both in their 40s and were ready to move on to other projects. Ackles had already started working on a prequel spinoff of Supernatural, and Padalecki was interested in pursuing other acting opportunities.
In the end, the decision to end Supernatural was a mutual one between the network, the producers, and the cast. The show had a long and successful run, and it is considered to be one of the most popular sci-fi/fantasy shows of all time.
Where to watch Supernatural online
The entire series is available to stream on Netflix. Fans can also watch the series by renting or purchasing episodes on Vudu, Apple TV, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, or Google Play,
What are the Supernatural stars doing now?
After Supernatural ended, the main stars of the show didn’t wait that long to land new acting roles. Read on to find out what projects have kept the Supernatural alums busy after the inevitable conclusion of the CW series.
Jared Padalecki
Just two months after Supernatural concluded, Padalecki returned to The CW to star in Walker, a straight reboot of the CBS series Walker, Texas Ranger that aired on CBS from 1993 to 2001. In the reboot, Padalecki plays Cordell Walker – the role portrayed by Chuck Norris in the original.
After going undercover for two years for a high-profile case, Padalecki’s Cordell, a broken widower and a father of two, returns to Austin and finds out that there’s even more work to be done at home. He attempts to reconnect with his creative and thoughtful son Arlo (Kale Culley) and with his headstrong, rebellious teenage daughter Stella (Violet Brinson), as he navigates clashes with his other family members. This includes his ADA brother Liam (Keegan Allen) who stepped in during Walker’s absence; his perceptive mother Abeline (Molly Hagen); and his traditional rancher father Bonham (Mitch Pileggi).
Meanwhile, at work, Cordell’s former colleague Larry James (Coby Bell) is now his Ranger Captain. While growing increasingly suspicious about the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death, Walker finds unexpected common ground with his new partner Mickie (Lindsey Morgan), who is one of the first women in Texas Rangers’ history.
In May 2023, the CW renewed the series for a fourth season, but the show’s return date has yet to be announced.
Padelecki also made a special appearance in an episode of Walker: Independence, the short-lived prequel series of Walker.
Jensen Ackles
After playing Dean in Supernatural, Jensen Ackles dove into the superhero genre in 2022 with the third season of Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys, in which he portrayed the role of Soldier Boy.
Introduced as the main antagonist in the third season of The Boys, Soldier Boy was America’s first and greatest superhero before Homelander (Antony Starr) and the former leader of the superhero team Payback. He helped good triumph over evil in World War II, but it’s not clear how much of that is true, as rumor has it that his participation in the war was Vought propaganda. He was said to have fought for liberty and justice for all until his disappearance during a botched military operation in Nicaragua.
His disappearance was covered up with a story claiming that he heroically sacrificed his own life to save America from a nuclear power plant meltdown in 1984. But in season 3, fast-forward to the present time, the Boys discovered that Soldier Boy is still alive after they broke into a military facility in Russia. It’s not clear whether Ackles’s Soldier Boy will be back for season 4, but the character appeared in an episode of Gen V, the new The Boys spinoff series that premiered in September 2023.
In 2022, Ackles also guest-starred as Beau Arlen in the second season finale of ABC’s Big Sky. He then returned as a main cast member in the third season of the crime drama, which concluded in January 2023.
Ackles also returned to the Supernatural universe as narrator in The Winchesters, a spinoff series and prequel to Supernatural.
On the movie front, Ackles has voiced Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, in the two-part 2021 film Batman: The Long Halloween and in the 2023 animated flicks Legion of Super-Heroes and Justice League: Warworld.
Misha Collins
After playing Castiel in Supernatural, Collins appeared as Dylan in the 2021 sci-fi thriller Encounter. In the same year, the actor hosted the PBS docuseries Roadfood, which aims to re-discover America’s regional culture through its iconic dishes. He also starred in the mystery crime podcast series Bridgewater.
Collins then returned to The CW in 2023 for Gotham Knights. Cast as a series regular, Collins played the role of Harvey Dent in the superhero show. Premiered on March 14th, 2023, Gotham Knights opened in the wake of Bruce Wayne’s death with his adopted son Turner Hayes (Oscar Morgan) forging an unlikely alliance with the children of Batman’s enemies after they were all framed for the murder. The series was canceled after one season.
Alexander Calvert
Alexander Calvert, who played the dual roles of Jack Kline and Belphegor in the 15th and final season of Supernatural, currently stars as Rufus in Amazon Prime Video’s Gen V. A spin-off of The Boys, Gen V centers on young adult Supes who are tested in The Hunger Games-style challenges at the Godolkin University School of Crimefighting, run by Vought International.
Calvert also made an appearance in one episode of The Winchesters.
Click here to find out what keeps other Supernatural alums busy after the CW show concluded.
Is there a Supernatural spinoff?
As mentioned above, a Supernatural spinoff series, titled The Winchesters, premiered on The CW on October 11, 2022.
Before Sam and Dean, there were their parents, John and Mary. Told from the perspective of narrator Dean (Ackles), The Winchesters is the epic, untold love story of John Winchester (Drake Rodger) and Mary Winchester, née Campbell, (Meg Donnelly), and how they put it all on the line to not only save their love but the entire world.
When John returns home from fighting in Vietnam, a mysterious encounter sparks a new mission to trace his father’s past. In his journey, he crosses paths with demon hunter Mary, who is also searching for answers after the disappearance of her own father. Together, the two join forces with young hunter-in-training Latika (Nida Khurshid) and easygoing hunter Carlos (Jonathan “Jojo” Fleites) to uncover the hidden truths about both their families.
Their investigation leads them to a rare book emporium, whose owner Ada (Demetria McKinney) takes an interest in the occult and could provide the missing pieces to their puzzle. But secrets run deep for both the Winchesters and Campbells. And despite the best efforts of John’s mother Millie (Bianca Kajlich) to protect her son from pursuing a dangerous life of demon hunting, John and Mary are both determined to work together to uphold their families’ legacies while beginning to form a family of their own.
In May 2023, the series was canceled after its 13-episode first season.