Supernatural is an American dark fantasy television series created by Eric Kripke. It was first broadcast on The WB and subsequently on The CW for 15 seasons between September 2005 and November 2020. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles portray Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who hunt supernatural creatures. As the story progresses, they fight against angels and demons to save the world from the Apocalypse. The series explores themes of found family, brotherly codependency, Americana, psychological trauma, and Judeo-Christian lore. Guest stars such as Misha Collins, Mark A. Sheppard, and Mark Pellegrino were promoted to series regulars.
The project originated from Kripke's premise of a cross-country road trip and was approved by Warner Bros. It spanned four showrunner eras: Kripke, Sera Gamble, Jeremy Carver, and the duo of Andrew Dabb and Robert Singer. The writing adopts a monster-of-the-week formula while exploring family psychology and self-referential humor. Filmed in Vancouver, Canada, the series uses chiaroscuro cinematography by Serge Ladouceur and an in-house visual effects department to manage budget constraints. The soundtrack pairs original scores by Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz with a selection of classic rock tracks, including Kansas's "Carry On Wayward Son".
Following its premiere on September 13, 2005, Supernatural consistently attracted over one million viewers for most episodes in the United States, reaching a peak of 5.82 million. It ended on November 19, 2020, and holds the record as the longest-running series on The CW and the longest-running fantasy series in American television history. The complete 15-season run was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 25, 2021. Critics praised the chemistry between Padalecki and Ackles; many considered the first five seasons to be the series' peak, while others took issue with its repetitive and convoluted plotlines during its final ten seasons. It received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won nine People's Choice Awards. The series has a large fanbase that regularly holds conventions and participates in charity work.
Premise
Plot
During Sam and Dean Winchester's childhood, their mother, Mary, is killed by a mysterious supernatural force, prompting their father, John, to raise them as hunters to track down the creature responsible. The first three seasons center on the brothers' road trip life, beginning with their search for their missing father. Initially, Sam seeks a conventional life studying at Stanford University with his girlfriend, Jessica. After she is killed in the same manner as his mother, Sam abandons his studies to join Dean. Traveling across the United States, they hunt monsters, ghosts, demons, and other supernatural beings drawn from folklore and urban legends.
John trades his life to save Dean at the beginning of the second season. The brothers discover that the yellow-eyed demon Azazel murdered Mary and Jessica, and forced Sam to ingest demon blood when he was an infant. After Sam is killed, Dean trades his soul to a crossroads demon to resurrect Sam in exchange for a one-year reprieve; the brothers destroy Azazel. At the end of the third season, Dean is dragged to Hell by hellhounds. The fourth season introduces the angel Castiel, who resurrects him. Driven by empathy, Castiel betrays Heaven to ally with the Winchesters and prevent the Apocalypse. However, Sam is manipulated by the demon Ruby; by drinking demon blood, he kills Lilith, unwittingly freeing the fallen archangel Lucifer from Hell.
In the fifth season, Sam and Dean are revealed to be the destined "vessels" for Lucifer and the archangel Michael, respectively, chosen for a world-ending battle. Defying his destiny, Sam regains control of his body and imprisons both Lucifer and Michael by throwing himself into Lucifer's Cage, from which he is later rescued by Castiel. In the sixth season, to prevent the archangel Raphael from restarting the Apocalypse, Castiel allies with the demon Crowley to open Purgatory, which releases ancient monsters known as Leviathans. Throughout the seventh season, the brothers combat the Leviathan leader, Dick Roman, to thwart his plan to turn humanity into a food source. After destroying Roman, Dean is trapped in Purgatory for a year before returning to join Sam in an attempt to close the Gates of Hell through a series of trials in the eighth season.
The angel Metatron casts a spell that expels all angels from Heaven to Earth. Betrayed and stripped of his celestial energy known as grace, Castiel becomes an ordinary human and struggles to survive throughout the ninth season. To save a dying Sam, Dean deceives him into allowing an angel to possess his body; this causes a rift between them and drives Dean to accept the Mark of Cain for the immense power to destroy the demon Abaddon. The Mark also infuses Dean with an insatiable bloodlust, which leads to his death and resurrection as a demon. When Sam and the witch Rowena MacLeod use the Book of the Damned to remove the Mark, they unintentionally release Amara, God's sister and the entity known as the Darkness.
God reveals his true identity as the novelist Chuck Shurley. During the eleventh season, he forms an alliance to try to defeat Amara before resolving their sibling issues. Out of gratitude to the Winchester brothers, Amara resurrects Mary Winchester. In the twelfth season, Lucifer impregnates a mortal woman and fathers a Nephilim child named Jack Kline. Despite fears that the child is dangerous, Sam and Dean adopt Jack alongside Castiel. However, Jack opens a dimensional rift to an apocalyptic parallel universe, bringing forth a more vicious alternate version of Michael. To defeat Lucifer and save Sam and Jack, Dean agrees to become Michael's vessel. Jack uses his remaining power to defeat Michael, but loses his soul and accidentally kills Mary.
Chuck reappears and demands that the brothers execute Jack. Realizing that Chuck has manipulated their lives for his amusement, Sam and Dean defy him; in response, Chuck begins destroying reality. The fifteenth and final season follows the Winchesters' ultimate rebellion against God. In the process, Castiel sacrifices himself to protect Dean from Death, and is banished to the Empty, where angels and demons go when they die. Jack absorbs Chuck's power to become the new God and fully restores free will to humanity. The series concludes with Dean's death during a routine hunting mission, while Sam lives a peaceful life into old age; the brothers are ultimately reunited in Heaven.
Characters
The premise of Supernatural is the quest of two brothers, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), to hunt supernatural creatures. Sam is depicted as a rebellious, intelligent, and independent character who aspires to a normal life, while Dean is action-oriented, protective, loyal, and dedicated to the family business. Their mission motto is "saving people, hunting things, the family business".
The series includes an extensive supporting cast of recurring characters. John Winchester (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is the father who trained the brothers to become demon hunters. Following his death, veteran hunter Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver) becomes a surrogate father and a mentor for the brothers. The third season is the only one to include Katie Cassidy (as Ruby) and Lauren Cohan (as the thief Bela Talbot) in the main cast. After Cassidy departed, the role of Ruby was recast with Genevieve Cortese for the fourth season.
In the fourth season, Misha Collins joined the cast as Castiel; scholar Louisa Ellen Stein wrote that his introduction marked a conceptual transition for the series. Initially depicted as an emotionless angel obedient to God, Castiel develops empathy for humanity, eventually rebels against Heaven to ally with Sam and Dean, and forms Team Free Will. Castiel's popularity led to Collins's promotion to series regular; he starred in seasons 5–6 and 9–15. Throughout their journey, the Winchester brothers receive assistance from Ellen (Samantha Ferris) and her daughter Jo Harvelle (Alona Tal), hacker Charlie Bradbury (Felicia Day), prophet Kevin Tran (Osric Chau), and Rowena MacLeod (Ruth Connell). In seasons 13–15, Alexander Calvert joined the main cast as Jack Kline, a powerful young Nephilim adopted and protected by the Winchesters and Castiel.
Mark A. Sheppard portrayed Crowley as a series regular in seasons 10–12. Introduced in the fifth season, Crowley is a cunning crossroads demon who maneuvers his way into becoming the King of Hell; he frequently shifts between opposing and aiding the Winchesters as his interests dictate. Mark Pellegrino's portrayal of Lucifer as sinister and humorous received praise from viewers and critics, leading to appearances across many seasons, and he was eventually promoted to the main cast for seasons 12–14. Antagonists who later become allies to the brothers include the demon Meg Masters (Nicki Aycox and Rachel Miner) and the archangel Gabriel, also known as the Trickster (Richard Speight Jr.). Other notable villains include Azazel (Fredric Lehne), Lilith (Katherine Boecher), Dick Roman (James Patrick Stuart), Metatron (Curtis Armstrong), Abaddon (Alaina Huffman), Amara the Darkness (Emily Swallow), and Chuck Shurley (Rob Benedict), who is revealed as God.
Themes
Supernatural blends the genres of dark fantasy, action-adventure, and melodrama, with elements of soap opera, Western, road movie, slapstick comedy, Gothic horror, splatter, and slasher. Most episodes begin with a weekly case in which a supernatural creature stalks and kills a random minor character. Sam and Dean then travel across the US in a 1967 Chevrolet Impala, which is considered their "real home". In this car, they share personal struggles, bicker, or exchange casual banter using the terms "bitch" and "jerk". The brothers discover supernatural cases by scouring newspapers or websites. To interrogate witnesses and bypass local police, they resort to lying, using fake IDs, and impersonating local law enforcement or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents. Sam, typically the researcher, consults libraries or surfs the internet.
In a typical hunt, the brothers investigate mysterious deaths or a supernatural threat. They identify the culprit, then find and destroy it. Their father's journal is a reference book to guide them through danger; scholar Rebecca Stone Gordon characterized it as a deus ex machina. The brothers also receive help from Bobby, Castiel, Crowley, and other allies. The tools they commonly use to combat supernatural entities include salting (to ward off ghosts or demons) and burning (to destroy human remains); specific objects, folk remedies, or incantations; and special weapons such as the Word of God tablets, the Colt revolver, flasks of holy water, wooden stakes, Ruby's knife, silver blades, and silver bullets. After resolving a case, the brothers resume traveling until they encounter another mystery.
The brotherly love between Sam and Dean is central to the series; the angel Zachariah describes it as a "psychotically, irrationally, and erotically" codependent relationship. They regularly engage in immoral and antisocial behavior and make pacts with demons to save one another, which creates a cycle of sacrifice, death, revival, and torture. The show explores the concept of found family, as illustrated by Bobby's quote: "Family don't end with blood". It suggests that a family is defined more by mutual acceptance and choices than by biology. As part of Team Free Will, for example, the Winchester brothers incorporate non-human allies such as the angel Castiel and the Nephilim Jack into their family. This focus on family also extends to cosmic conflicts: the struggle between Lucifer and the other angels is described as one between brothers; even God's conflict with his sister, the Darkness, is framed as a family dispute.