The Winchester boys are back. AGAIN!
Supernatural is returning for an incredible ninth season later this year, when it will be quite literally heaven on earth. At the end of last season, Sam and Dean failed in their mission to complete the demon trials while Metatron succeeded in his own revenge plot, leaving all angels falling to earth.
So where does the show go next? How will Castiel cope with being fully human again? And could a landmark tenth season be on the cards? Follow live coverage of the panel with us below to find out!
Please note that all times in this blog are Pacific, which is eight hours behind the UK and three hours behind the East Coast.
I believe it was Vanessa Williams who sang 'you go and save the biggest queue for last'. I've braved a preposterously long queue and emerged into Hall H the Journalist Victorious, just as our first panel of the day, Supernatural, is getting underway.
We are currently watching highlights from season eight and the first little bit of season nine.
Out comes the panel: show runner Jeremy Carver, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, exec producer Bob Singer, Misha Collins, Mark A Sheppard.
Carver: "This season we're going to learn quickly that a world full of fallen angels is pretty much a free-for-all." Collins gets up to leave.
"With angels on earth, it's not one unified body. We've got lots of angels out there with lots of different agendas. Many are feeling lost and scared. It lends itself to some really exciting and wonderful character moments for all of our characters to be dealing with. A world with fallen angels is a dirty bloody scary and in some ways very human world."
Sam and Dean - how will they get along this season? Carver: "One of the interesting things about the end of last season is for the first time, the brothers chose each other. They chose to leave the Gates of Hell open in exchange for saving each other. That has created a tremendous amount of fallout. All the normal sort of constructs of heaven and hell aren't the same any more. The king of hell is not resident in hell and heaven is not as it was. I keep going back to the term free-for-all."
Padalecki: "We'll keep fighting the fight together. We're really gonna need each other more than ever. FREE-FOR-ALL."
How will Castiel change? Collins: "It's a remarkable shift for Castiel. Prior to this season he's been equipped with all sorts of powers, it made him a very useful tool for the brothers. Now he can pop in and basically fold laundry. There's a shift in the dynamic there in terms of how he can be utilised by the brothers. For Castiel's arc as a character this season, it's going to be an immensely rich terrain to explore. Now he's down in the dirt and filth of being a human and experiencing what it's actually like to eat and find out what happens to the food after you've eaten it." Padalecki: "There's a great bathroom scene."
The final scene with Crowley's breakdown - was it sincere? Singer: "Don't answer that." Sheppard: "I think the fun part for me is that whatever happened to Crowley at the end of season eight has had a profound effect on him, whether he likes it or not. Hopefully we'll go on a little journey to find out what kind of effect that might have had."
Will the Men of Letters be a part of season nine? Singer: "It's the first actual permanent set we've had in eight seasons. It's also a treasure trove of information. There's a ton of rooms we haven't explored yet. For Dean, it's a home. He's got a memory foam mattress, he's hanging posters, and for Sam it's a workplace. He's very much comfortable in the academic pursuit one can follow with the Men of Letters."
Jim Beaver recently tweeted he's returning. Carver: "He also tweeted he was coming back in a way you wouldn't guess or expect, and that's pretty much where I'll leave it."
Will Felicia Day's Charlie be back? Singer: "I don't get the sense that she's giving you very much. As a director you're constantly waiting for her to get out of the makeup trailer, she doesn't learn her lines...." Cue Felicia Day to come out on stage!!!
Day: "I was in another hall at a different Comic-Con entirely. I heard what you just said Bob and I flew over."
Singer: "Of course Felicia will be back. We love her and we have big plans for her this season."
Day: "I'm thrilled to be back. It's always amazing when you have a gift of a character that you want to play all the time."
Day: "I think the show needs a tough vagina."
What is it about Charlie the fans like? "I think that Charlie is a girl who happens to be a geek but that's not who she is. She's a person with an amazing past and happens to love geeky things. A lot of TV shows create geek characters that are a cliche and they don't go any deeper than that. It's amazing what's been created here, especially for a girl character."
What keeps Dean ticking? How does he stay strong? Ackles: "Dean has been through quite a lot over the past 176 hours of television. What keeps him motivated is his sense of duty to fight the good fight, it's his duty to his brother, and what he signed on to do. Sometimes he doesn't wanna do it but he does it anyway because that's why he was put on the earth. When he came back from purgatory last season, there was a real sense of clarity to his mission. That's why he was there, to fight that fight and be alongside his brother and drive that beast of an automobile down the highway."
And as for Sam? Padalecki: "He tries to fight the good fight. We always play with 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'. They're trying to do the right thing, mirror reality. Sometimes he messes up and they pick him up. He's accepted that his life is not going to be normal, finally, so he's trying to make the world a better place."
Will Cas now get to learn how to drive the Impala? Ackles: "Nope." Singer: "He's kidding, he will." Ackles: "Nope." Singer: "He will." Ackles: "Nope."
Audience Q&A time. Where's Waldo, wearing a Spidey mask, asks if we'll find out where angels and demons go when they officially die. Singer: "They go to Comic-Con. That's actually a very good question. My wife who's a writer on the show asked me that very question the other day." Padalecki: "We're hoping you can tell us." Carver: "It's something we could answer yes. It's a place that's absolutely right for storytelling."
A girl asks a question "for all of the actors except Jensen". Have they ever thought about directing at all? "Jensen you've already directed." Ackles: "I still have thoughts about it. But fine, I'll just shut up."
Padalecki: "I've thought about it. At the moment it's not right for me. Maybe in a couple seasons. I try to make the most of my time off with my family, so inevitably I fly back to Vancouver at the last possible second. At the moment I'm not willing to give away an extra couple weeks to do that."
Collins reveals he'll direct episode 17 this season. "I apologise in advance for the product."
Sheppard: "They don't let me do anything." Day: "I thought you were going to ask me what Jensen smells like because fans always ask me that. I always say coriander and leather."
Will the Winchesters help the fallen angels? Carver: "We can pretty much bet that the path of the fallen angels intersects with the Winchesters in a pretty big way this season, so yes. It's going to be a lot of fun and really - her's a buzz word - interesting."
A young boy comes up and does sign language for his question, and the interpreter struggles with it. He's asking about the half-angel, half-demon character. Will we see what happened to it? The Antichrist. Padalecki: "That's a good question. I've thought about that myself." Carver: "I don't think you're going to see that character in the early run of episodes this season. Any time we really introduce a great character we're always looking for a way to bring him or her back, so you can rest assured that no character goes forgotten for too long."
Do they enjoy playing alternative versions of their characters? Padalecki: "My favourite is where Jared and Jensen played Sam and Dean, playing Jared and Jensen playing Sam and Dean."
Collins: "The writers are constantly taking risks, changing things up. We're never watching the same episode twice, which is an amazing achievement after 173 episodes."
What are their favourite guns? Padalecki: "We haven't used the grenade launcher yet that's in the car. I wish we could." Ackles: "I'm a big fan of my 1911, just because it's always in my hand. I say my 1911. It's not mine. I've had to learn how to be very proficient with it. I could take it apart, put it back together blindfolded."
A sycophant congratulates Collins on his charity work then asks why Crowley is the only demon that can teleport. Singer: "He's the king. It's good to be the king. We gave Crowley that particular skill because he'd worked his way so far up the demon ladder that that's one of the perks you get." Padalecki: "It's like when Voldemort learned to fly." Ackles: "Really?"
Cue the gag reel! And that's a wrap on this panel. Join me shortly for the final ever Breaking Dad panel.
Written by
Neil Wilkes
Neil Wilkes
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