Supernatural actors set to reunite in The Boys final season

It's official! The upcoming final season of Amazon Prime's The Boys will feature actors Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins as guest stars.

These actors are perhaps best known for their starring roles alongside The Boys regular, Jensen Ackles, in the cult classic 2005 show, Supernatural. With Eric Kripke being the showrunner for The Boys and the original showrunner and creator of Supernatural, it makes sense to see some actor crossover. Besides Ackles, the two shows share Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Joe Kessler & John Winchester), Rob Benedict (Splinter & Chuck/God), Alexander Calvert (Rufus & Jack), and Jim Beaver (Bob Singer &… Bob Singer). And those are just the big ones. At this point, the question becomes why they haven't brought on Jared and Misha sooner.

We can talk all we want about scheduling conflicts and actor fallout, and I'm sure those things definitely played a part, but I think it's bigger than that. You can tell by the response to the announcement across social media platforms that Collins and Padalecki reuniting with Ackles for this final season absolutely overshadows anything else that has been happening on The Boys. The announcement video alone has more likes than any other post on The Boys' official account on Twitter.

"Imagine being the original cast busting your ass off for four years and here come these randos to take the spotlight for the final season LMFAO I’d be mad as hell," wrote one user reacting to the announcement.

So I guess, with this in mind, the question of why they haven't done this sooner becomes obvious. And the real question becomes, why now?

Well, I have a theory!

Ironically, this theory has The Boys engaging in the exact same practice I condemned the Supernatural finale for employing. That practice being using the finale of the show to soft launch another one.

Let me explain.

Incoming spoiler warning for Supernatural and affiliated properties.

There have been a lot of rumblings since the Supernatural series finale back in 2020 that Ackles was going to bring the show back come hell or high water. It was no secret he was unsatisfied with his character's ending, and when he came back in June of 2021 with an announcement for a spinoff series called The Winchesters, no one was shocked. The show did end up being canceled after one season, but it served its purpose in establishing that Dean Winchester was not sitting pretty in heaven as the Supernatural finale might have one believe. Since then, it's been one domino after another.

Ackles' media company made a deal with Amazon in 2023, meaning they would no longer be subject to the whims of The CW. Jensen has gone on record many times saying, "It's not over for me." And, more than that, there's one really big Supernatural plotline that never got a resolution. And that's the Castiel love confession from Season 15, episode 18, "Despair."

After ten years of fans saying that Dean and Cas were in love, Supernatural confirmed it in the most heartbreaking way possible: Cas thinking it was unrequited and confessing as a way of sacrificing himself to save Dean. In a way, Dean didn't even have a hope of answering him. And the confession was never brought up in the two episodes after it. They never mentioned it again.

This scene made the internet so insane that it trended over the 2020 election. Screenshots from the confession have been used as memes to announce the news for the last five years. Including the news of Misha's appearance on The Boys.

So the question of "What would a Supernatural sequel series even be about?" is already answered. We wouldn't expect another fifteen seasons—in today's climate, we can't even expect more than one season. So what's a story we can tell in a movie or a limited series?

Ackles already answered that for us back in 2023.

Ackles' character pops up in The Winchesters saying he's traveling across heaven looking for something. In my heart of hearts, I believe that something is Cas and it's to confront him about that tragic "I love you."

Now what does this have to do with bringing Collins and Padalecki to The Boys?

Well!

Over the last month, there's been an increase in chatter with official Supernatural accounts making noise about Destiel (the couple name for Dean and Castiel) and alluding to Supernatural not being over.

The official YouTube channel for Supernatural posted an hour-long compilation of Destiel moments on Valentine's Day (Dean and Cas's unofficial wedding anniversary). Rob Benedict and Richard Speight had a discussion about Destiel on their Supernatural recap podcast. (Important to note that Richard Speight directed the 'I love you' episode.) Destiel was recently a question on Jeopardy, with Collins tweeting about it after the fact.

But even ignoring the growing number of people Destiel posting on main, we have Creation Entertainment, the official convention company for Supernatural, releasing this "SPN Family Forever" coin last week.

If the show has been over for five years, why is there a question mark?

The on-screen reuniting of the trio was the last nail in the coffin for me. It's been long theorized that the series finale for Supernatural was so bad because they were using it as a kind of soft launch for Padalecki's new CW show, Walker. They kind of shoved Dean to the side and didn't acknowledge the Cas confession because they wanted a Sam-centric finale. They wanted people to come away from the finale loving Sam enough that they follow him to his new show, also on the CW. It failed miserably because the Sam girls were already going to follow him, and the Dean and Cas girls were so angry about what was done to our boys that we refused to watch out of spite.

However, that was trying to pull loyal fans to a brand new property by just showing them it had one of their special little guys. I believe that The Boys is pulling that idea and making it better.

By reuniting the trio, Team Free Will, and putting them on screen together – and they will be on screen together–

It's definitely enough to reignite interest in an already successful property. This fanbase is already rabid, and those who maybe haven't been engaged with the show since its finale have been activated like sleeper agents with this news. I'm in the trenches: I see it all.

They wouldn't need to sideline any of The Boys main cast members if they wanted to soft launch a Supernatural sequel of some kind. Literally just having the three of them together is enough.

Also, The Boys is an Amazon property in its final season. If Ackles has plans to launch a Supernatural sequel series through his deal with their platform, it would make sense for them to want to draw people in and keep them watching. Just like what The CW tried to do.

And I hope The Boys fans don't have to go through what I went through—no one should have to suffer the grief of an unsatisfying ending to their favorite show. But honestly? Whatever gets me Supernatural back, I'll be stoked.