Supernatural Showrunner Reflects On Show’s Enduring Legacy 20 Years Later

Supernatural showrunner Andrew Dabb has talked about the enduring legacy of the beloved show, two decades after its premiere. Eric Kripke’s cult dark fantasy series debuted on The WB in September 2005, before moving to The CW for its second season. Dabb became co-showrunner from Supernatural season 12 until its season 15 conclusion.

During its 15-year run, Supernatural received acclaim for its dark tone, exploration of American urban legends, interesting characters, and sprawling, multi-season story arcs. Supernatural stood out for its dynamic lead pairing, and remains one of the most influential shows on television, and Dabb has reflected on the legacy of the series, 20 years later.

Per TV Insider, Dabb reflected on his time on Supernatural, as well as the long-running cultural impact of the show, and how it has an enduring legacy. He talked about the message of the show – that anyone can be a hero – and how Supernatural wound its way into people’s DNA during its run.

He also praised the performances of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Sam and Dean Winchester, and talked about the male bonding dynamic that helped make the show so successful. He went on to speak highly of the show’s writers, and how they. Check out Dabb’s comments below:

“I think especially as the show has finished and then aged in the way it’s going to age, you have a lot of people still discovering it. You have a lot of people that use it as kind of comfort food, which is incredibly flattering. The message of the show was always — and not to be super cloying or anything — anybody can be a hero, not that it’s going to inspire people to go out and fight crime, but I think that’s a really valuable message, especially, I mean, I was going to say right now, but truthfully anytime. You’ve got these two guys that are incredibly competent going out and doing things and helping people. And I think it gives people comfort in a way that is really great.”

“Supernatural, we never won an Emmy, we were never one of those shows. But I think that show, especially for the people that are watching it now and for the people that watched it when it was going, it really does seem to have wound its way into people’s DNA, which to me is the best legacy of the show you can have.”

“You don’t see a lot of shows about male bonds in that way. Most shows, you put two characters together, they’re meant to be at odds, right? And Sam and Dean, they were at odds. They had differences of opinion, everything like that, but at the end of the day, they still loved each other. And I think that’s what allowed it to cut through everything.”

“They started out when they were really young, and they threw themselves into it. And then I think we got really lucky in that we had a lot of writers come through that show that were incredibly talented and could come in and do episodes and make the episodes their own and make them feel like, the best cases, these really well-crafted stories that people can go back to and that do stand up, that do kind of hold up in a way that frankly, in my opinion, it’s rare for shows to hold up as well as Supernatural holds up — not to say everything holds up, not to say the politics are always perfect because they’re definitely not. But I think in terms of the storytelling and the enjoyment of it, hopefully that holds up for some people.”

What This Means For Supernatural’s Enduring Legacy

Supernatural remains one of the most influential TV shows of the last two decades, and has had a huge impact on the fantasy genre. The show’s interpersonal dynamics between its two leads were a strong point throughout its run, and Supernatural‘s best episodes often focused heavily on the brothers’ complicated relationship.

Dabb is right that the show understood what made it work, and stuck to that, and its strong character development is one of the things that helped it to resonate so much with viewers. Whether a Supernatural revival show will ever happen remains to be seen, but there is every chance it would attract strong viewership from legacy fans.

Our Take On Supernatural’s 20-Year Legacy

Some shows simply hit the right notes, and capture the essence of the time they were made, but manage to evolve into something else entirely. Supernatural was a series that grew into a pop culture phenomenon during its run, and there’s an argument to be made that the show’s legacy might be ruined if it was revived or rebooted.

The series showed it was possible to tell in-depth stories, with interesting, multi-layered characters, and still have a fantastical backdrop of demons and (occasionally) goofy villains. The show wore its premise on its sleeve, and this is one of the things that made Supernatural such an appealing show during its run.

Supernatural

8/10

Release Date

2005 – 2020

Showrunner

Eric Kripke

Directors

Philip Sgriccia, John F. Showalter, Kim Manners, Thomas J. Wright, Charles Beeson, Guy Norman Bee, Richard Speight Jr., Mike Rohl, John Badham, Steve Boyum, Amyn Kaderali, Jensen Ackles, Tim Andrew, Eduardo Sánchez, Jeannot Szwarc, P.J. Pesce, Nina Lopez-Corrado, James L. Conway, amanda tapping, J. Miller Tobin, Stefan Pleszczynski, John MacCarthy, Jerry Wanek, Ben Edlund

Writers

Meredith Glynn, Davy Perez, Raelle Tucker, Cathryn Humphris, Brett Matthews, Nancy Won, John Bring, Ben Acker, Daniel Knauf, David Ehrman, James Krieg, Trey Callaway