It’s All About Discovery and The Boys: Eclipse Talks Exclusively to Supernatural Writer/Producer Sera Gamble About Season 3

“The new characters give me the chance to discover all new things about our guys.” Sera Gamble one of the writers and executive producers of the hit CW series Supernatural is talking exclusively to Eclipse Magazine at the 28th Annual San Diego Comic Con held at the San Diego Convention center back in July. The ‘guys’ in question are Sam and Dean Winchester the two main characters of Supernatural who are played by the extremely talented duo of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. For its first two season, Supernatural focused on the Winchester brother’s quest to find their missing father and to confront the demon responsible for their mother’s death while they criss-crossed the American back roads in their ’67 Chevy Impala loaded with weapons to fight all manner of supernatural threats.

Sam Winchester in particular was of interest to the demon and his plans for creating chaos on earth. Now heading into it’s 3rd season and with one demon dealt with but a whole army of demons left to contain, Supernatural is adding two new regular recurring characters and Sera Gamble gives Eclipse Magazine the inside scoop on what’s going down for Sam and Dean Winchester when the new girls hit the ground running.

The two new characters are Ruby (played by Katie Cassidy), who is a demon hunter like the Winchester brothers, but with an very dangerous maverick, unstable nature and Bela (played by Lauren Cohan), who is mercenary out to make money by taking advantage of being in possession of items that hunters need to fight the demons and other supernatural creatures. How much of a part of the main thrust of the stories will Bela and Ruby play into and what does this mean for the two existing main characters of Sam and Dean Winchester.

“Ruby and Bela tend to fit into different kinds of stories, at least in the first part of the new season,” Sera Gamble tells Eclipse. “Ruby plays a role in the hunter war, while Bela begins her arc as more of a supernatural opportunist who couldn’t care less about hunting. What’s all this going to it mean for Sam and Dean Winchester was fore most on the minds of Eclipse readers and Sera Gamble gives us the lowdown in very succinct terms. “Mostly, it means trouble,” she tells us with a mischievous smile. Yet that doesn’t mean Gamble doesn’t understand and sympathize with some fan reaction to the announcement of these new characters into the Supernatural mix. Quite the contrary, she is very much in tune with fans and viewers concerns.

“I have to say, I know fans are really worried about the new characters, and I do get where they’re coming from,” Sera Gamble acknowledges. “I’ve watched shows and been way annoyed by new characters. But I think people are going to dig Ruby and Bela more than they expect to. At least I hope so, because we’ve been having lots of fun writing them. Ben Edlund wrote the episode that introduces Bela. I was laughing so hard I was crying when we broke that story. She puts the boys in such a deliciously bad situation,” Gamble says with a smile. “I’m hoping that our audience will appreciate the new elements Bela and Ruby bring into the boys’ stories. It’s good stuff. I believe they represent a deepening and an expansion of the world we’re already in. They support the story we’re telling this season, rather than distracting from it. Even though they’re hot chicks.”

The one thing that Sera Gambles wants the fans and viewers of Supernatural to be assured of is the continuing importance of Sam and Dean Winchester.

[b]“Sam and Dean are the two main characters of the show,” [/b]Gamble is quick to stress to Eclipse in this exclusive interview with her. “That’s how we approach every single episode.” Sera Gamble says that the writers will be talking about Ruby and Bela– and also some other recurring characters that pop up in various episodes– the same way they have talked about characters like Bobby Singer (played by Jim Beaver), in the past two seasons.

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“Bobby supports the boys, and he became very involved in the endgame last year. I’ve started work on an episode that’s going to spend some time delving into Bobby’s back-story,” Sera Gamble tells us with undisguised delight in writing about this fan favorite. “I for one really want to know where Bobby came from, why he’s a hunter. I mean does the guy have a family? How’d he meet John? Was he born wearing a trucker cap?”All of these questions led Gamble and the other writers to come up with a story that revolves around a case Sam and Dean will work on that allows the writers to go into this exploration of Bobby Singer. And, Gamble says, more importantly, for Sam and Dean to go there as well, so we the audience can see how they’re affected by what they learn about Bobby. “We treat all the secondary characters that way– as interesting components of Sam and Dean’s world. I’m always excited to write more characters, new characters. They offer the opportunity to throw new stuff at Sam and Dean. I look at it as pushing their buttons. Sam and Dean push certain buttons for each other. They’re different from the ones John pushed, or Bobby, or Gordon push.”

Sera Gamble goes on to stress the point that Supernatural is still very much the story of Sam and Dean Winchester by taking time to discuss the most pressing issue the boys will be facing on a personal level. In the season 2 finale Dean Winchester had made a deal with a demon to trade his soul to it in one year in return for the demon bringing Sam Winchester back to life. Season 3 will open with this issue lying on the table between Sam and Dean and the countdown clock ticking to Dean’s life and soul being forfeit by the end of the season. Eclipse asked Sera Gamble how quickly the writers were going to start dealing with this issue.

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[b]“We jump right in with that. We don’t think Dean is worrying about his own fate more than Sam’s. Dean’s number one priority has always been his little brother.[/b] A little thing like an impending eternity of hellfire isn’t going to change that. However It’s not exactly something Sam can put out of his mind,” Sera Gamble tells us but is also very quick to let our readers know that this won’t be something that Sam and Dean will be able to solve very quickly, it at all.“We talk alot in the writers’ room about how it feels to know someone you love is going to die,” Gamble says giving us an insight into the writing process involved in this very complicated and possibly emotionally devastating storyline for the Winchester brothers. “Everyone whipped out their personal story of knowing someone terminal. We started there, with our personal experience, and we looked at how Dean’s impending death would affect each brother. They both have a whole series of emotions to burn through. As for how Dean’s situation affects the story, obviously they would like to get him out his deal. Unfortunately, that’s more or less impossible. No way are we letting them off easy. Or ourselves– every time we come up with a possible fix in the writers’ room, we immediately work to find a way to shoot it down. We basically play demon and make sure the deal stays firmly in place, breathing down Dean and Sam’s neck.”

While not at liberty to give away all the plot twists for the coming season Sera Gamble did tell us that one of the new female regular, recurring characters would also being playing a crucial part in this storyline with Dean Winchester and that they were working on a way to create a story that will deal with the mysterious amulet that Dean Winchester wears like a talisman. “We’ve been talking about Dean’s amulet. As of now we haven’t decided exactly when, but we intend to use it in a future episode,” Gamble tells Eclipse.

Outside of his overwhelming desire to get Dean out of his deal with the demon, where does all of this leave Sam Winchester who, with the defeat of the Yellow-eyed Demon has lost his demon given psychic powers. Sera Gamble gives us some insight into Sam’s coming challenges as well.

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[b]“Sam is a regular guy and he isn’t.[/b] He’s a demon hunter, and he’s a Winchester. The Winchester men are among the best hunters in the world. That’s why they get their own TV show. And Sam’s abilities may have gone AWOL, but plenty of demons are still mighty interested in him. Whether or not Sam is having visions, the bottom line is, he’s on the front line of the demon war. Believe me, we’re in no risk of running out of story. We have big plans for the direction of his character this season.”In the season finale, their enemy the Yellow-eyed Demon hinted to Dean Winchester that what he had brought back from the dead might not be ‘100% Sam’. Eclipse asked Sera Gamble about this. “We spend some time with that particular mystery, so I don’t want to give it away,” Gamble replies being somewhat cagey about where this will lead, but that’s ok because fans are looking forward to discovering the answer to this mystery just as much as the writers are exploring it.

Season 3 of Supernatural premieres on the CW Network on October 4th. Check your local listings for time and channel.

EclipseMagazine