Jensen Ackles Gives Sincere Response To Supernatural Ending Fan Reactions

Supernatural‘s series finale divided fans in their reactions, but Jensen Ackles gives a sincere response to all of them. Ackles co-starred alongside Jared Padalecki in Supernatural as brothers Dean and Sam Winchester, who travel the country hunting ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural beings. The series ran for 15 seasons and became the longest-running American fantasy series on television. After a brief delay due to Covid-19, Supernatural’s series finale aired in November 2020.

Supernatural season 15 wrapped up the overarching conflict that the Winchester brothers had with Chuck, the god who created several realities in the series and enjoyed watching the brothers suffer. After Chuck was finally defeated by Jack absorbing his powers in Supernatural season 15, episode 19, the series finale ended the show by killing Dean during a vampire hunt 5 years later. Sam lives out the rest of his days peacefully and reunites with Dean in heaven on a bridge that calls back to the series’ first episode. This ending for the Winchesters created mixed reactions in the Supernatural fandom, as some fans loved and some fans hated Dean and Sam’s fates.

Now, Jensen Ackles reveals his own feelings on how Supernatural‘s series finale was received. Ackles told Michael Rosenbaum on his show, Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum (via YouTube), that there is “no wrong opinion” about the ending. He goes on to clarify that both fans who like the final episode and fans who didn’t have valid opinions because he too saw both sides of the issue. Read Ackles’ full thoughts on the fandom’s divide below:

“I don’t think there’s a wrong opinion about it. I honestly don’t. I think that the people who have problems with it are validated, and I think the people that enjoyed it are validated. I was in both camps. I spent time in both camps.”

After this comment, Ackles explains how he had hated Dean’s death when the writers pitched the finale episode to him and Padalecki. As Ackles explains it, he didn’t want to see the character go, but eventually the show’s creator, Eric Kripke, who had left Supernatural after season 5, convinced him why the ending was great for Dean and Sam’s characters. This interaction played out similarly online between fandom members. Some felt Dean’s death was unbefitting for a man who survived 19 years fighting much more dangerous beings and who deserved to live in peace with his brother, while others insisted Dean wouldn’t be able to live in peace on earth and going to heaven would give him the rest he deserved.

Unlike Kripke convincing Ackles, most online debates – related to Supernatural or not – don’t end in someone changing their mind. Ackles going out of his way to tell fans that he had at one point been “in both camps” highlights something that is often forgotten by audiences: all stories are open to interpretation. The same scenes can mean different things to different people, like Dean’s death. Even if that can’t soothe angry fans, at least Supernatural ended with the Winchester brothers together.

Source: Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum

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