An interview with Jeremy Carver for Season 9 of Supernatural

10 December 2014

With Season 9 about to air on E4, we catch up with executive producer, Jeremy Carver, to find out more…

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What can you tell us about Season 9 of Supernatural?

I think this year is going to be really fun. The boys are coming into a broken landscape in Season 9 because the normal constructs that they have become used to – the King of Hell being in Hell and the angels being in Heaven – aren’t there anymore. Part of that is Sam and Dean’s fault, and part of it is Castiel’s fault – but the season starts in this different landscape, which is new for us on the show.

What can you tell us about the journey of the show’s main characters in Season 9?

Each of our characters are going through a pretty significant ‘Who am I?’ journey. Castiel is getting human, Crowley is dealing with being a captive and not being in control, and the boys are dealing with other things, which I can’t really go into. We’re really digging into our characters this year and hopefully we’re rounding them out in a way that viewers haven’t seen yet. Having been on the show for several years, this is a really fun place to be. For all of the demons and monsters we see on the show, the characters are hopefully what the fans respond to the most.

What are you hoping the fans’ reactions will be to Season 9?

Personally, I don’t mind. I think the fans are very passionate and they have really taken sides, in many ways. We all know that some people are for Dean and Castiel – but I think our job is to keep the things that happen to the characters really, really grounded and relatable. However, and I don’t want to be baiting anybody here, a little bit of a controversy never hurt. That’s also fun. You may not agree with the decisions some of our characters make at the start of Season 9, but you will understand them.

There’s a basic Christian theology that creates the basis for the Supernatural story. Have you thought about whether this story works for non-Christian audiences?

That’s very interesting. I’ve never thought of the approaches that the show takes in that regard, and I never thought of it excluding other religions. However, I don’t think that people come to the show, first and foremost, for any sort of religious undertone. I think it’s the fact that Supernatural is a story about family. I think that’s what brings in our viewers, and I think that’s what is relatable across the board.

How far in advance do you scope out the show’s major character and story arcs before the upcoming season unfolds?

Before every season, the writers’ room is open. [Executive producer] Bob [Robert] Singer and I sit down, and we basically sketch out the idea for the season. We work out the general story, and we put a couple of big moves in there – but then we like to leave room for what we call ‘happy accidents’. These are the things that just happen when we’re really sinking deep into the mythology. Hopefully, they look like we planned them all along. So, we sketch out the season in good detail and we leave room for the fine etching and inking to come in as we go through it.

What excites you the most about this season?

What excites me the most is that, from a character standpoint, we’ve got our characters in this broken landscape. It’s not the normal Hell and it’s not the normal Heaven; everything is a little screwed up. The most obvious character to talk about here is Castiel and the fact that he’s human. He’s got to deal with all that this entails. He is also a fugitive from the angels who want to exact a certain amount of revenge. At certain points he’s going to be faced with the fundamental question of whether to try and be the best human he can be; or to somehow try and rejoin the angelic fight that he, essentially, caused. It’s these little mini crises that excite me the most.

What can you tell us about Bobby [played by Jim Beaver] in Season 9?

I’ll give you a quick bit of back-story on this. When Jim came back last year, we asked him to keep it secret that he was going to return to the show in episodes 17 or 19. It was a real pain for him, apparently, because he had to be very secretive when he was travelling to Vancouver. So, this year we thought, ‘Hey, we don’t think he needs to keep the secret this time.’ And then, about three minutes later, it was everywhere because he’d tweeted. I went on his Twitter feed and I realised that he’s got 275,000 followers, so the news was out there. In his tweet, Jim also said that he’d be coming back in a way that you don’t expect, and that’s very true.

Can you tell us how Bobby returns?

I think his return has been a concern for some people because they want to see him come back in a way that’s very respectful towards mythology. Well, we’re not simply killing someone off and then bringing them back for convenience. This all fits correctly into lore and mythology. We’re not bringing him back for kicks or for ratings. It’s really a very powerful return for him.

Are we going to see any more characters return? Will we see Charlie [played by Felicia Day]?

You’re going to see Charlie in an episode at the beginning of the new season, which is going to be linked with the past in a way that I can’t tell you right now. What I will say is that we are probably going to see the first two Men of Letters ever to inhabit the bunker. These are literally the first two guys who turned the key in 1935 and entered the brand new adventure of being one of the Men of Letters.

This sounds very intriguing…

And it takes a turn for the even more weird… When it comes to the Men of Letters’ bunker, the first case we’re dealing with is very much connected to the Wizard of Oz! It’s fun and it’s emotional and Charlie is worked in there somewhere, too. It’s really cool and it’s an episode where we learn a lot of history about the Men of Letters. It’s fun for the writers because it’s one of those episodes that really acts as a pay-off for this grand new piece of mythology that we introduced last year.

How long would you like to see Supernatural continue?

Well, there’s definitely a game plan. Last year, I remember saying that there was a plan and that the plan went through to Season 10 – but this plan can shift as much as it needs to. I feel like my obligation is to keep the show as fresh as it was in Season 1 and I don’t think, unless I’m told, that it’s my job to bring it to an unnecessarily premature end. As long as we are keeping it fresh and people are watching, I think the obligation is to keep spinning them out. It’s fun for all of us and we’re all having a great time with the show. I think that Season 14 could be as thrilling as Season 9.

ENDS.