Aeryn13

It's actually a toss up for me if this or the Series Finale is worse to me. Maybe the latter at this point. There was never really a chance I would change my mind into liking the Season 5 Finale because I viscerally hated it at the time. With a good show ending, I would have just ignored it and never rewatched, though. Now it is more like Game of Thrones or the 100, where I don't rewatch anything, period.

The problem with streaming is the buisness model. The old network model had a TV station running ads and the more popular the (re)-runs the better the money, so good residuals. Streamers, especially Netflix, pretty much solely make their money from their subscribers. Which doesn`t even cover the operating costs of the whole service in most cases. So not only is it impossible to say a subscriber subscribed for x show but what if they only stream 2 episodes of a given show? Or 10 minutes of an episode of one show? How to calculate what percentage of their monthly subscription fee will go to x show as residuals? They will all go bankrupt within a short time if they had to pay residuals. That`s IMO why the current studios and the writers/actors make no headway. You have the "old-fashioned" studios and the streaming studios who want, need and can provide totally different things. Yet they would need to agree to one rule for all to make a deal.

It`s a thin line. They can if they promote nothing of their work. Which at Comic Con would have been difficult because that`s less of a fan convention these days than a super-promo tool.

Buisness related, likely. But to a Con in the midst of a strike? If he wanted to be done as an actor, that would have been the way to go.

In what capacity? As an actor it would be quite difficult to go during the strike.

When I clicked on the link to the THR article, this passage was in it: "Actor Josh Hopkins has replaced the character who was played by Jensen Ackles, who departed the project due to a scheduling conflict." No idea if they mean just for some pick-up shoots or wholesale. I'm way more intrigued by the scheduling conflict.

I have no idea how the rights situation works out in this case. It`s one thing to licence existing products from another studio/company, another to do it yourself. The Winchesters was on amazon to buy pretty early on but of course noone ever really knows how shows do on streamers. What I`m baffled by is CW Nexstar not having made announcements already. I figured they would barely wait until the Seasons finished and then drop axes left and right. I mean they did for Stargirl. I don`t realistically see a future on the CW as is so maybe if Warner does continue to produce it then via a licencing/cost-sharing deal with amazon? Such things are not uncommon, the new Star Trek stuff was half-financed via Netflix, half by Paramount.

The SPN fandom is/was like any big fandom ever. It was kinda cute and positive (before it went too big) when it was a fledgling fandom in Season 1, maybe early Season 2. And then it grew and turned into an absolute dumpster fire and stayed that way. I have never seen a fandom not take that trajectory once it grew beyond a certain point. The "it`s a big family" is always a pipe dream. So at this point I just ignore it.

I don`t know they pulled those musical rights off, they are quite expensive. Overall I would grad the show positively. No, I didn`t think it was a slash-bam hit and the first Season of SPN was IMO better by a good margin. Then again, I think the first Season of SPN is one of three really good Seasons of this show. And honestly, the writing of TV shows in the 2000s/2010s, especially on the CW, was just more a dozen times more appealing to me than the writing of the 2020s. Watch first Season Flash and now Flash, it used to be charmingly campy, now it`s stupidly goofy. Something changed for TV shows IMO and it`s why I largely moved on to a different entertainment industry. And I won`t lie and say fixing Dean`s terribly lacking legacy via a little side mystery and a few scenes in the Finale here wasn`t a big appeal for me. There was almost no chance it wouldn`t have been. So the plotting of the Winchesters did have its iffy point. The Akrida was a good concept but lacking in execution - kinda like the Leviathans. Too much daytime shots when I would have wanted more atmospheric night time shots (makes it creepier), even though I liked some creative new MOTW. But I guess that was a directing/budget issue. But I will say the characters on the Winchesters did win me over. Carlos would have totally been a "shtick" in many other shows today and I never felt he was that here. He had his eccentricities but that he wasn`t defined by "shtick", he was a competent hunter and a person and that is what he should be. Lata was a rather loveable noob. John was a different kind of hunting noob in that he naturally already came with combat experience. And Mary, I feel, had the most difficult role of them. She was so Dean-coded in the show and the writing comes with its own pitfalls. I don`t feel the actress is bad but she isn`t Jensen`s calibre and Jensen smoothed out a lot of Dean edges in the mothership. Dean on paper and Dean in the show are worlds apart. I would be totally open to watch more adventures with this cast. Sure, they are "just" an AU which may lessen the investment but in this particular case it also helps with the resentments. I don`t have that much of a big problem with John even and how he turned out, even though the final episode in SPN was a big meh but SPN!Mary and how she ultimately came back? Boils blood. So I can like any version better than that one. And if that was the final word on it (which realistically it well could be), then I`m still glad I got it and have a fond look at it.

Jack is still a naive tool. "I wanted no meddling so mankind would be free to make its own choices." What choices could they make once they were all destroyed by Chuck`s final booby trap, you yokel? That is the exact kind of situation an actual benevolent God should step in. Well, since the guy can`t be counted on, the multiverse has a Dean instead. I`m happy to get something meaningful for him one last time. And that he may have given this world`s version of his family a shot of freedom and happiness. He clearly enjoyed that. Even though he clearly also didn`t enjoy his going back to heaven. Read the room, Jack, there is no "peace when you are done" because Dean doesn`t feel done and doesn`t want that kind of peace at the moment. Now I still think the ending of SPN was super-badly done as in how the story was done and executed but it does recontextualize Dean`s part somewhat in terms of personal and professional legacy. Beats the hell out of the uselessly driving around. And hey, if he did it once, it opens the possibility of doing it again.

The licensing money goes to the production studio, though. Back when the CW was owned by Warner and CBS respectively, that was no problem, using the CW as a content farm. Nexstar wouldn`t see a single dime of the licensing money with other streamers. That is why they are radically shifting their programming, they only make money via old-fashioned advertisement and live watching. That is a dying buisness model but alas.

Considering Dean and fixing his story is hardly the core of the Series and the focus of the story and likely dealt with only with a little pay-off in episode 13, the show so far proves that is not the case. Managing a little addendum on Dean`s story would just be a nice little frosting on the cake but not the cake. But considering side, any of them would hardly have a leg to stand on. Someone like Dabb certainly doesn`t have when it comes to stroking their own ego.

If Dean gets another ending, that in itself overwrites the Finale. Lets say it keeps Dean`s stupid death, the terrible words he is made to say and the bad wig as well as the heaven reunion as the end point, if you give Dean an adventure in between that happens to happen kinda as a mystery in the Winchesters, it is still overwriting things because that very clearly wasn`t implied to have happened. Especially if you have a time-loop-y Dean live out his years in yesteryore. Granted, I wouldn`t give a rat`s ass who loved that episode if I hated it and got a chance of a do-over. Now maybe it all shakes out differently anyway. But it already has been addressed in interviews that Dean-in-the-past is not just an easter egg but a mystery to be resolved in ep 13. And apparently by handing John the letter, he kickstarted something, i.e. some changes in the timeline at the very least. So a reset at the end? Or something in between?

Oh, I think there is a perfectly good chance Cas appears. He would be the easiest "answer" to how Dean might have gotten out of heaven and back in time if that is what it is. And I`m sure they would have a nice, warm-hearted scene together but shippers convincing themselves again it will be the lovey-dovey confession of the ages - without any hints as to why that would happen - reminds me of not just SPN but so many other shows where "it will surely happen" before it never happened scenarios. Sherlock, Merlin, Teen Wolf, Supergirl and apparently Destiel. Sam is also a possibility if they really tease "continuation" of SPN here. Unless it isn`t after Dean`s death but at another point in the timeline. But if so, you need to wipe Dean`s memories, too, because obviously at various points he didn`t know yet his mother was a hunter, the MOL were a thing etc. After his death is the "easiest" choice regarding his character with the current storyline. But then you would have either call back to the heaven reunion and go "well, they were bored and went back- somehow" or retcon the SPN ending with the bad wig and the rusty nail and everything. Which I`m all for.

And then bitch and moan when something that noone gave them the slightest indication would happen and is extremely unlikely to happen will not happen? Some things just never change. I doubt any big cameos will happen before episode 13. And then it`s a matter of availability as all actors filmed something else at the time.

You mean filming episode 2? Because noone started on a Season 2. If it does fix Dean's ending and just that, I already would consider it a big bonus. Though I remain iffy on a continuation/sequel to the mothership. The idea gives me more dread than anything after everything that happened with it.

Some of Robbie Thompson`d interviews would make no sense if this was conceptionalized as just a limited run series. And if that guy isn`t in the know, I don`t know who would be. And if it was, it should have been announced and marketed to be a one-off Season from the jump. Keeping that hush makes no sense to me. You can always do more if something is successful and change plans.

I think that`s a good point that every prequel runs into. And SPN had quite a bit of backstory explored already so it isn`t a totally blank space, making the breathing room even smaller. In a way I would compare it to Star Trek for some reason doing lots of prequels with its new shows and not only that but setting it within hair`s breath to an era that was featured in its very first TV iteration. Now I find one of those prequels far superior than the other and I can see that they are trying their damnedest to match up to what is known but if I`m completely honest, that is and will be impossible. You can`t match everything perfectly. Compared to the lol!canon snake eating itself in the entire last Seasons of SPN (where nothing made sense anymore and nothing matched up a hill of beans), I do think the Winchesters does a valiant job with it. Samuel in Season 6 was kinda like resurrected Mary, a horror job of a character, and I have to actively blink them out of my memory to even enjoy younger versions. So I`m taking new "memories" of an Indiana Jones-esque Samuel to overwrite the monstrosity of Season 6. They don`t match up? Thank God.

That was before all the upheaval at WB last year. Maybe they are revisiting this project now since both Berlanti and Chaos Machine re-upped their contracts with WB. But it could be something completely different.

Having a little mystery about Dean - and in such a way that the story still stays on the 1970s characters - is really neat.

I'm not sure how much truth there is to it but I read somewhere that SAG protocols require an actor to check for themselves or at least have the armorer check the gun in their presence. But I do believe the main responsibility lies as a producer here. This is a veteran actor who was a producer on the movie but says nothing when the armorer is not around when a gun is brought to set but the second AD hands it to him. All incredible no-goes.

Wow, I didn`t think they would be renewing anything. Well, it is their highest-rated show demo-wise, meaning, you could negotiate the best ad prices for it. And it did so badly in Season 1, only because the network gave it a shot did it gain viewership over the summer due to the Netflix deal. Maybe that could be a lesson in investing in the future. Then again, maybe not.

I think at a certain point Zaslav will have to realize that he needs some content. Noone is gonna pay premium for HBO MAX for just cheap reality and docu stuff. But for the time being, yes, Warner is a big question mark. I know WB still holds the rights to SPN overall, what I`m not sure is Jensen bought the rights to John and Mary specifically and Dean could appear on Warner`s say-so? I do know Chaos Machine aquired partial rights. I kinda wish they bought the rights to Dean as a character so noone and nothing can use him without Jensen`s agreement. There is something where actors can block further use of their characters, I do know that. Some characters `couldn`t appear in Legacies, even in pictures or barely mentions (like Original`s Hailey) because the actors had parted ways with the showrunner in such a bad way, they didn`t allow it.

The Winchesters have finished shooting, right? So any appearances by either Dean, Sam or Cas would be subject to scheduling as all actors IMO would have been shooting something else in the exact same timeframe. Now everyone probably could get a day or at most two in but at the same time? So if all are in it and even share a scene, that probably was pencilled in quite early because otherwise it would be just to risky. Jensen can`t just randomely say he will not shoot this and this day of Big Sky. same Misha with Gotham Knights and even (or rather especially as a producer) Jared can`t throw of Walker`s schedule. Even if everyone put a day aside they weren`t shooting anyway, sometimes you go over/under and have to reschedule etc.

I don`t think there is really any correlations with Charmed or Legacies and the Winchesters. Though overall I do agree that there is slim chances overall of pick-ups by other outlets. Even the streaming landscape has changed dramatically in the last year or so. I`m not sure they would use the final episode of the Winchesters basically to just reboot SPN or something like this, maybe a small-ish teaser but the meat and bones of episode 13 will be about the Winchesters cast and plot.