TV Spoilers & Speculation Corner: 7/13/11

This week, we have spoilers for Supernatural:

Supernatural (Friday nights, 9pm, CW)
By Paula R. Stiles

Things are swinging into action as we move toward Comic-Con next week. There was a Creation Con in New Jersey and cast spoilers (not all of them confirmed). But first, the big news: season seven will get 23 episodes not 22, reportedly so that we will get a true two-hour season finale without sticking two episodes together or having a week hiatus beforehand. It’s times like this I really wish our site had dancing fruit gifs, ’cause I could use a few happy bananas to throw around right about now. Incidentally, that is probably about as close to a 22-episode order as a CW show is likely to get this season and evidence that the rumours the new CW head is a saltgunner may be true.

In the same spoiler link, we learn that Ben Edlund is writing Guy Bee’s first directed episode (the one from late July). Officially, that’s listed as 7.03, but Guy Bee confirmed that it would air as 7.02. Kim Rhodes also said at the New Jersey con that she would be in it as Sheriff Mills and Bee confirmed this. He tweeted the first page of the script for 7.03, with the title marked out (though it appears to be long enough to be a phrase…or a prodigiously long single word). Listed as Executive Producers are: Robert Singer, Sera Gamble, Phil Sgriccia, and McG. Listed as Producers are: Eric Kripke, Ben Edlund, Peter Johnson, Jim Michaels, Adam Glass, Todd Aronauer, Andrew Dabb, and Daniel Loflin.

Bee also tweeted that 7.01 (which is the season premiere, but will film second, starting next week) would be directed by Phil Sgriccia.

So, the current lineup for the episodes is:

7.01 (filmed second): Title (Unknown), Writer (Unknown), Director (Phil Sgriccia), Cast (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Jim Beaver(?))
7.02 (filmed third): Title (Unknown) Writer (Ben Edlund), Director (Guy Norman Bee), Cast (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Kim Rhodes, Jim Beaver(?), Alona Tal (?))
7.03 (filmed first): Title (“The Girl Next Door”), Writers (Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin), Director (Jensen Ackles), Cast (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Jim Beaver, Colin Ford, Jewel Staite, Michael Nyuis)

There is no information yet on scripts after 7.03.

According to an article in Variety, Eric Kripke may be a much-reduced presence this season (even more than last year). He’s sold a script to Warner Bros. for a horror flick, Haunted, and will also be directing it. This is bound to produce some kerfuffles in the Supernatural fandom, especially among those who hoped he might take back the reins from Sera Gamble after a less-than-stellar season six. Myself, while I wasn’t thrilled with season six as a whole, nor am I currently thrilled with how Gamble’s done so far, I think the less-than-stellarness began under Kripke, so you can’t entirely blame Gamble for it, or hope Kripke returning would have changed it for the better. We’ll see how this changes things in season seven, if it does.

The CW is releasing a new app for the iPhone, so you can watch recent CW shows on your phone. Basically, it looks like what you would find on the CW site, anyway.

Guests at the NJ con included: Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins (The two of them did a joint panel), Gabriel Tigerman, Corin Nemec, Kim Rhodes, Steven Williams, Rick Worthy, Matt Cohen, Richard Speight Jr., and Brock Kelly. You can find info about it at congoer Teh Jessica’s blog (She’ll also do a con report for us on Friday), donnagaff’s blog and ONTD. Spoilers were relatively few, but some were more intriguing than others. In addition to Rhodes’ revelation, Worthy teased he might come back this coming season as the Alpha Vampire. Padalecki said we would see some of Sam’s Hell and supposedly what he did/participated in there. He also said the Impala would surely be back, that Dean would restore it.

Set photos of 7.01 (i.e. 7.03) showed a well-rested-looking-and-shaved Director Ackles and a big old casting spoiler – Jewel Staite will appear in the episode as the adult version of Amy. The fact that Ackles is shaved indicates that Dean should be in the episode (In fact, I’d very surprised if he weren’t). That Padalecki was available to attend a con over the weekend indicates that there will be a fair number of flashbacks (i.e. Colin Ford playing Sam in them), as this episode still looks Samcentric.

More set photos show that the Impala is all fixed up, that at least part of the episode is set in Montana (“Whitefish Mt Gas & Sip”), and show Ackles directing an actor named “Michael Nyuis“. We also see Ackles dressed as Dean and directing himself. So, this appears to be a scene with Dean.

Jim Beaver confirmed to a fan on Twitter that he would be at Comic-Con and said he thought Misha Collins would probably be there, too. Beaver also responded to a rumour that season seven was the last, saying that was not true and: “No one knows when the last season will be, including me. But 8 or 9 wouldn’t surprise me at all.”

Warner Bros. is issuing special bags for ten different shows (including Supernatural) at Comic-Con and there will also be four TV Guide covers (not including Supernatural) to celebrate the con, though the show will be featured inside. Speaking of Comic-Con, the panel will be on Sunday in Hall H, 11:15am-12:15pm. The Sunday schedule vaguely promises us: “Series stars Jared Padalecki (Friday the 13th [2009]) and Jensen Ackles (My Bloody Valentine 3D) and additional cast members and executive producers present an exclusive sneak peek at footage from the highly anticipated seventh season of this thrill-ride series.” Probable translation: We know Jim Beaver is coming and that Misha Collins is probably coming, of the “additional cast members”. In terms of “executive producers”, Sera Gamble will almost certainly come and probably Ben Edlund. It should be interesting to see if Eric Kripke shows up. McG and Robert Singer don’t usually come to Comic-Con and Phil Sgriccia will be busy directing the season premiere. As for the “sneak peek”, it will probably be too early for any footage from the season premiere, so it’s likely to be like last year, where we got a clip from Jensen Ackles’ directed episode. And we all know the “portion of the special features” from the DVD will be the blooper reel, or a shortened version of it.

Alona Tal teased that she might be back as Jo in season seven. Maybe. Nobody, including Tal, would confirm it one way or the other.

Finally, ratings for the repeat of “All Dogs Go to Heaven” were uncharacteristically bad, with audience numbers of 704,000 and a 0.3/1 demo. As I recall, this episode didn’t do well on its first run, either, and I guess it was a dog the second time round, too.

So, speculation: It looks so far as though Sera Gamble will remain the showrunner, with Eric Kripke bowing out even more than in the past. What that means is unclear. One hopes she learned something from season six because that season is generally regarded as not so great. While it seems that new CW head Mark Pedowitz is much fonder of the show than previous CW head Dawn Ostroff (not that hard, considering her lack of love for Supernatural), what that will mean for what we get in season seven is unknown. But an extra episode sounds nice. I hope it means the show gets a little bit more budget, though, or that shrinking money will have to be stretched that much more.

Ben Edlund writing 7.02 is very interesting. In the past, the second episode seems to have fallen to whoever was the showrunner’s second-in-command. Eric Kripke wrote the first two episodes of season one and every first episode thereafter except for season six, John Shiban wrote the second episode of season two, and Sera Gamble wrote the second episode of seasons three-through-five, and the first episode of season six (Adam Glass wrote 6.02 and Edlund didn’t get one until 6.03). Who writes the first two and last two episodes of a season says a lot about who is really in charge and what the current hierarchy is.

The casting spoilers sound nice, especially for Jewel Staite (Shiny!). The Alona Tal rumour may or may not indicate there’s more truth to the Great Tumblr Hoax than we previously thought – if it were more than a rumour. I was a little nonplussed by Padalecki’s response about the Impala, mainly because it never occurred to me that the Impala was going anywhere. I mean, come on – it’s the Impala.

As for the “spoilers” about Sam remembering Hell and something he did there…oh, Lord. I so don’t care about any more of Sam’s manpain or Sam Done Come Back Wrong. Let’s please hope that this is just a case of none of the cast really knowing what’s going on, yet. Yeesh, writers, give Sam something else to do.

So far, there has been absolutely nothing about Dean. There’s actually been more about Castiel (and the producers and writers have been almost dead silent about his fate), at least in that we know Collins will be in the first two episodes. It’s not exactly a spoiler to say that Ackles will be a regular in season seven. It’s difficult to tell what this lack of info means, of course, with no evidence. However, keep in mind, folks, that it meaning Dean won’t have much to do is only one theory. It’s just as likely that the reason is the same as for Castiel – that something major will happen with Dean in the first episode or so that would affect even what we see of him in 7.03. So, anything leaked about Dean at this point would be a huge spoiler. I guess we’ll see.

We’ll be back next week with more spoilers. Stay tuned and check out our reviews of Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, The Event and Supernatural.