COMIC CON-To Hell(and Back) With Dean Winchester: Jensen Ackles Talks About Supernatural Season 4

Jensen Ackles a the 2008 Comic Con

One of the nicest things about getting to interview Jensen Ackles who plays Dean Winchester on the hit Warner Bros/CW Network series Supernatural is how he always takes a moment to acknowledge everyone with a friendly laidback ‘hi how’re you doing’ before he jumps into answering all the burning questions that we reporters have about the fate and future of his character, Dean Winchester. And ‘burning’ is an apt description of what happened to Dean Winchester at the end of Supernatural season 3.

In the culmination of events that started back in the finale of season 2, All Hell Breaks Loose, Ackles found his character of Dean Winchester in the season 3 finale, No Rest for the Wicked, having to make good on his deal to trade his soul into hell at the end of one year’s time for the life of his brother Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki). There was no way out of it Dean went to hell.

“Oh yeah, good times,” Ackles says with a laugh. “We left Dean in hell hanging from some meat hooks screaming in agony so I can only imagine what it was like down there, which is something they will get into in I think the first half of the (4th) season.”

According to Jensen Ackles this focus will be used to start filling in the blanks about what was happening to Dean in hell and what he was doing. But that also it will delve into what Sam was doing while Dean was there and they were separated. “I think both of those things will lend itself to pulling a little bit more from the mythology of the show which is another reason why Dean gets out of hell.”

Jensen Ackles tells us that things will be a bit complicated for Dean Winchester in the first few episodes of Supernatural season 4 as he finds himself taken out of hell and he doesn’t even know why and it will necessitate the character of Dean Winchester getting to know himself again and figuring out where he fits into things again.

“There is going to be uncertainties which is not something he handles well because he has always had an idea or an answer or some sort of knowledge about things and if he has questions, he figures it out,” Ackles says as he offers us his insight into how he feels his character has always dealt with issues that have come up for him. “But now there is complete uncertainty and not knowing why he is back.”

Yet Ackles is quick to point out that even with all of this, Dean is still basically the same guy he has always been, the same smart-ass. “He’s still the same shoot first, ask questions later kinda guy, but he’s just trying to figure out how in the world did he get back from hell and what it all means but his personality is not going to change at all.”

But having spent time in hell where they were working on turning him from human to demon, will this have any change on how Dean views other aspects of his job hunting and killing supernatural creatures which had always been so black and white to him before?

Jensen Ackles thinks there will be changes made in how Dean sees this part of his life now. “Yeah I think that will start coming into play. I think the things that he believed in or didn’t believe in are going to start weighing in heavily on his development this season,” Ackles says with confidence before catching himself and adding a softly spoken ‘at least I sure hope’ to temper the statement in case things don’t go that way as much as he says it will and he would like it to.

The one thing that Ackles is sure of is that this getting Dean out of hell is going to place his character more firmly into the mythology of the show where in the past it had mostly been focused on Sam’s destiny. “Dean’s always been there to try and save his brother to get him away from not lending himself to getting caught up in what the demons had wanted him (Sam) to become,” Ackles says of the storyline for his character so far. “So now that Dean has become a part of that mythology it’s going to make for a pretty interesting season for him.”

Jensen Ackles discusses Supernatural

So what does this mean for Jensen Ackles as an actor to have his character even more involved in the mythology and the focus of the storyline than every before?

A lot of work is what it is according to Jensen Ackles.

“It’s definitely been a challenge so far because they are introducing this kind of new scenario with Dean and in order to do that they have to have a lot of details about his storyline. In the first few episodes because it’s all about Dean, as an actor it’s all about Jensen being on set to film,” he says with a slightly tired smile crinkling up the corners of his eyes.

Ackles had gone straight from the Lionsgate Films movie set of My Bloody Valentine 3D, which he took the lead role in over his summer hiatus from Supernatural, to going straight into working on season four of Supernatural. Even as he speaks of the workload his character has been given, already you can see the effects of the grueling back-to-back filming schedules showing on his boyishly handsome face. Yet you can also see the enthusiasm Jensen Ackles has for this new challenge for him to be playing in the otherwise familiar role of Dean Winchester and you can hear it in his voice as he speaks about it.

“When I read it I get really excited about it for my character, but I’m also really excited about where the show is going this season,” Ackles says this is basically because this is the most excited he has been about the show and about a story arc for Dean Winchester. “Because of that, I’m ready to hunker down and do the work and hope it comes out right.”

Want to see if it comes out right? Check out Supernatural season 4, which will premiere on September 18th at 9PM EST on the CW Network with the episode Lazarus Rising. Our money’s on Jensen Ackles that it does!