Supernatural Creation Cons 2026 – First up, Vegas!

Vegas was the first con of 2026. It had been a few months since the Supernatural fandom had been together with the cast, so there was extra anticipation for this one. It’s a long flight for me, which is never fun, and it was late, so I didn’t get there until later in the day on Friday, missing lots of the Friday fun unfortunately. Also unfortunately, Jared Padalecki wasn’t able to be there, and we were all missing him. (But excited that he was filming a movie!)

There were some guests we don’t usually get to see, including Emmanuelle Vaugier (Madison the werewolf).  Barry Bostwick, who was in the Supernatural episode ‘Criss Angel is a Douchebag’, was also there, signing autographs in the vendor room just a few tables down from mine. It was surreal having someone who starred in something so formative in my very younger days – The Rocky Horror Picture Show – hanging out and chatting. Curtis Armstrong (Metatron) was also in the vendor room right down the aisle from my table, and we got a chance to reconnect and share a hug.  We all hated his character, but I love Curtis – and I’d love to see him do a panel again too!

I caught a little of the ladies panel with Emmanuelle, Alaina Huffman, Kim Rhodes, Briana Buckmaster, Emily Swallow and Samantha Smith.

Samantha Smith: It wasn’t fully scripted when Dean and Mary look in the Impala. It was like Dean remembered being conceived there…

Briana said that her last episode on the show was surreal, because it was all of them not knowing when Covid would shut them down.

Sam is used to her character being controversial.

Sam: I have people come to my table and say, I hate your character!

Alaina: Sometimes people come up and say, you’re my hall pass, and I’m like um, nice to meet you?

Emily imitated how some people come up to her and recognize her and say “It’s the Darkness!!”

I did not make the trek all the way back to the ballroom, which was approximately 25 miles away, for karaoke, but I hear it was a good one!

Saturday was Misha Collins day. Misha said he’s trying to learn piano, but doesn’t want to practice. My thirteen year old self can so relate.

What would he like to be like if he was younger?

Misha: I have five children in my house a lot of the time and they’re always eager to learn, and I’d like that back.

He re-told the classic Jensen Ackles walks into an electronics store and the clerk just points across the room and there’s a table with a giant portrait of him in Skittles for GISH!

He tried to show the photo on his phone but it didn’t work out well.

Misha: I didn’t expect to have Jensen’s face in my crotch here…

He also reminisced about the time GISH set a world record with a gathering of French maids – who all fainted from the heat but kept holding hands anyway!

What’s his secret for navigating the depressing times we’re in?

Misha: When I’m feeling down, finding like minded people lets you feel like you’re not alone.

So true. It’s what fandom’s about, after all.

Misha said his own values are similar to what Cas and Sam and Dean had, asking the question ‘would this be good for the world?’

His comfort food?

Misha: Cheap shitty airport Chinese food.

He says when it comes to acting, he focuses on enjoying the work and not on if he’ll get the part.

Misha: The great thing about getting older is not worrying about what other people think. Even when your daughter tells you that you’re getting a little pooch…

(Me: where???)

Misha said he had fun with all versions of Cas.

Misha: I wish I’d had more chance to play human Cas.

He also shared a memory from another Vegas con, and of Jared being a very good friend.

Misha: I was walking through the lobby and I saw my castmate Jared sitting at a high stakes poker table  – blackjack actually — and I was like OMG what is he doing? And he said Misha, come over and sit down. I said no fucking way, I don’t burn money like this. And he said, here – and he slid a pile of chips over in front of the chair. So I did sit down, and I gambled for Jared’s money – and I won! And then I took the money home! It was amazing.

Now that’s a good friend! (Looking at you, fandom!)

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Misha is working on a novel right now, one on adolescence from the perspective of now.

Someone asked, what would Cas and Misha do together?

Misha: Cas has this whole time travel thing. I’d like to hang out with early Castiel who was still able to time travel, and go back in time and see what my parents were like right before I was born. I don’t want to watch my parents conceive me, get your mind out of the gutter!

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Of course this happened – a fan asked if he had watched ‘Heated Rivalry’.

Misha: Should I? I’ve heard it’s quite popular.

Audience: YES!

Misha: Okay, I definitely won’t then.

Misha to a fan: So what inspired you to join this cult?

Misha got a double hug from Ruth Connell and Felicia Day at the end of his panel – awwww.

I had to go back to work, but caught a few minutes of their panel. Ruth said she once tried to order a tea kettle from the hotel, but it was $88!

Ruth: So I bought one at Target.

Felicia clarified that she was totally lawful good, but Charlie was more chaotic good.

Alex Calvert also had a panel on Saturday.

Alex: I’ve never gambled. I figured this job was enough of a gamble…

A fan was playing a game of Bingo, trying to predict everything that would come up at an Alex panel.

Alex: Rufus no-dick joke… (his character on Gen V…. ouch)

Also a Misha Collins being his dad joke.

Alex: That’s my whole panel!

What would be on his tombstone?

Alex:

Has he ever been obsessed with a show like we are with Supernatural?

Alex: Yes! Mad Men.

(He must fanboy Julie McNiven!)

Vegas was the first con where some of the Countdown cast joined in the fun. Jensen made a surprise appearance at their panel, with Jessica Camacho and Elliott Knight.

You can tell how much fun this cast had together just by seeing them have fun on the panel.

If Jessica was on ‘The Boys’, Jensen said he thinks she could be either a Supe or one of ‘the boys’.

Elliott: Like Kimiko!

I didn’t make the 25 mile trek to the ballroom for the Saturday Night Special either, which is the first time I think I’ve missed it in all my years of going to conventions.

Sunday I said hi to HR, who’s a talented sculptor and artist. He showed me his new Soldier Boy figure, hand painted and sculpted – amazing! HR has an interview in the book we put together on ‘The Boys’ — ‘Supes Ain’t Always Heroes’ — about his work. (Jensen and his Vought Rising costar Aya Cash also have exclusive interview chapters in the book, with some new insights about how they crafted Soldier Boy and Stormfront) along with many of the other stars of ‘The Boys’). If you need to catch up or want a refresher before Season 5 drops in less than 2 weeks, check it out – here’s a link with all the info: https://smartpopbooks.com/book/supes-aint-always-heroes/

Jensen did the gold panel by himself, immediately gesturing to where Jared usually stands next to him and singing plaintively “All by myself…”

Awwwww

We all missed you, Jared!

Jensen: We wish him well, get better soon and all that kind of stuff. Although I will remind him that there are several people here with injuries and it didn’t stop them from showing up… leaving me hanging…

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A fan asked, what will represent Dean in the Smithsonian Supernatural exhibit?

Jensen: They’ll have to call me because I have them all…wait, they have that? (the fan suggested the Colt)

Fan: They will…

Jensen: Ah, they will – if they know what’s good for them! The Vampire Diaries fans will show up and throw tomato soup on it… can the car count? Okay, the car. Baby. And I think probably a flannel shirt. And then last but not least … it could be the Samulet, Dad’s leather jacket though I unfortunately only wore it briefly… you know what? Pie? Could be pie. I’m gonna go with Dean’s Colt. Not the old Colt but Dean’s 1911 because it was probably the prop that he used the most, it was always in my hands, more than any other prop.

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Predictably, Jensen got the ‘have you seen Heated Rivalry’ question too. He said no, he hadn’t, and didn’t think he was probably the target audience.

Jensen: And don’t think I don’t know that was a leading question.

He said he loved the Purgatory story line, but wishes that Sam was there too.

Audience: Awwww

Jensen: No not awwww so sweet like he misses his brother – it’d be cool!

(Also he misses his brother… but it’s sweet that he wanted Jared to share in a cool experience too)

Someone mentioned Clif and Jensen said he’s “a brother for life”.  After all the time Jensen, Jared and Clif have spent together since 2005, I guess that makes sense!

He also talked about the Supernatural finale (again…) and why he came to wholeheartedly embrace it, and why it was good storytelling.

Jensen: I was like, I don’t wanna see him (Dean) die. So that was my initial response, I don’t know if I like this, can he die? (pointing to an imaginary Sam)  So it took me a minute to kinda step back and step out of myself and my feelings for the character and look at it from a bigger perspective. Doing that, I found that – look, there was never going to be a perfect ending that pleased everybody, somebody was gonna complain about whatever we did. I feel like this gave us a real heart wrenching heartbreaking dramatic moment to really tie up the series. And for that, from a storytelling perspective, I felt like it was a really good choice. Again, was it the best choice? I don’t know that there was a best choice, but I felt this was really solid and I was really proud of it when we did it. I felt really proud of how it turned out. I knew people were gonna get upset, but the whole point of doing what we do is to make people feel things. That’s storytelling. If it made you angry, if it made you sad, if it made you happy – well [if it made you happy], I wanna see you outside…

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Jensen: That was a way of really making the audience feel something. If you step back and look at the show, there were a lot of beloved characters that we killed. Because doing that makes good TV, it makes the audience feel something. It’s heartbreaking, it’s sad, it’s like no, I can’t believe you’re killing this character off, it’s like yeah, but the writers are like, this will get ‘em. If everything is hunky dory all the time, it’s boring. So you’re like I can’t believe they killed this person! Or, I can’t believe this show is not about hockey! It challenges the audience and that’s good drama.

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Oh Jensen, sneaking in that Heated Rivalry reference.

Everyone right now is talking about Soldier Boy and the outrageous things he says that could probably make anyone blush – Jensen gave us a preview at this con.

Jensen: I think Soldier Boy would make Dean blush! Just reading it on the page I was like, oh that’s gonna be a meme…

Accurate.

He was still disappointed about Countdown’s cancellation, as were many of us.

Jensen: I was looking forward to finding out what happened to Oliveras, and seeing Meachum going crazy to find her, and it getting complicated again.

Latest rumor?

Jensen: That I was arrested! My agent called and asked, are you in jail??

(No, he was not arrested.)

Jensen: My manager called and asked are you in jail? Not a word of a lie. And I was like, what? And she sent me a screenshot of the page six New York Times reporter saying we have it on good authority that Jensen Ackles is in prison, has been arrested. Then a day later my agent called and TMZ had just called asking if he was arrested and was in jail, and I was like well, kinda. He was like, what? I said well I’m standing in a foot of snow and it’s minus 15 degrees outside, but I am with a camera crew and we’re rehearsing things…

And he was like okay, so you’re not in jail?  No, I’m not in jail!

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Someone asked about his participation in The Boys video games as Soldier Boy.

Jensen: My line was something like, that doesn’t open, dumbass! So they’re just little short soundbites like that. Very different, all unique in their own right, and I am scheduled to do a few other things in that world coming up.

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Jensen also shared his thoughts on the infamous 6-7 trend that his youngest daughter loves (because of course she does).

Jensen: She’s like, Dad did you hear that? I’m like, shut up… so my thoughts are, as long as it doesn’t mean anything harmful or offensive and it’s just some fun, have at it kiddos!

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He’s a good dad.

Favorite Supernatural episodes?

Jensen said the ones that were really unique.

“We did a lot of episodes, I don’t know if you know that… and a lot of them felt very similar to each other because that was the show. So the ones that went outside the box, like The French Mistake is fun. And one of my all time favorites, both the experience of filming it and also how it turned out, is the episode Baby.”

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Jensen was also asked about the beloved Eye of the Tiger video.

Jensen: I’m sitting there, laying down in the Impala, they cue the music and it was just supposed to be the fist bumps. And then Jared comes in and bangs on the top of the car like hey with donuts or something and I pop up and then we have a scene. That was it, we rehearsed it that way, we did one take that way, another that way, and then the third take Jared just goes, I wanna see what he does here and he doesn’t come in. And so the music plays, he misses his cue and I was like well I guess I’ll just keep going. And it was “Risin’ up…” and I got up and kinda looked around and he wasn’t there, and I grew up in sports and was always taught to go until you hear the whistle and I didn’t hear cut so then it was an impromptu music video.

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He ended his panel by asking us all to send love to Jared.

Jensen: He’s laid up and he needs it.

I hope he could feel it!

The afternoon panel was Jensen and Misha. It started off with Jensen answering some question with “we’re still working out the kinks”.

Misha: You said kinks – that was definitely on someone’s bingo card!

What other cartoons would they like to cross over Supernatural with?

Jensen: Beavis and Butthead.

Misha: Or South Park.

I can see it!

A fan asked, what’s their head canon of their characters? Poor Misha could not backtrack on something he said in his panel that got interpreted as Cas is into BDSM.

Misha: Now the more fervently I deny it, the more it’s seared into people’s heads! So okay, cool, Cas is into BDSM and wears ass-less chaps, so there you go. I’m sorry, I have to keep going with it now!

Jensen: For Dean… okay, this touches on something that happened in the show. I think there could have been more exploration into Dean’s love of cosplay.  I think he would secretly get dressed up and go to Comic Con and not tell Sam.

Misha: That is so true.

Jensen: Dean was kinda a big nerd, don’t let the gruff exterior fool you. There was a lot of relatability to that guy, which is why I enjoyed playing him so many years. Yeah, I’d go with he’s a big cosplay nerd.

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Misha talked about filming Supernatural and trying not to let Jared and Jensen make him laugh while filming. And failing.

He also had a touching story about how close they were to the crew on Supernatural. After he told Dave that his divorce was tough, Dave texted him every morning just to check in and see how he was doing – for a whole year!

Jared was missed and not forgotten. Misha recalled how tall Sam (and not Dean) is. Jensen is grumpy.

Jensen recalled that time they were filming Supernatural with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jared broke the magic pearl and it hit Jeff right in the junk, and Jared and Jensen collapsed simultaneously to the floor laughing.

Jensen: You know Jared and I have been working together so long when you see the reaction of us both double over and then collapse on the floor simultaneously. There were many moments like that, which in my opinion was one of the many reasons why the show was enjoyed and beloved and succeeded the way it did.

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A fan asked what they enjoy doing with their partners.

Misha: My partner and I enjoy dehydrating.

Jensen:

Anticipating the new season of ‘The Boys’ starting soon, Jensen talked about how he observed footage of actor Lee Marvin and how that influenced his portrayal of Soldier Boy.

Jensen: And Truman Capote comes out and in all his glory, doing his whole thing, and it cuts to Lee Marvin smoking a cigarette and looking at Capote like… and I was like oh, that’s Soldier Boy!

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Misha: Jensen and I are not classically trained actors… as you can see onscreen…

There were some unusual questions, which elicited this priceless reaction meme:

Jensen: I don’t get these kind of questions when Jared is here…

There were some moments of ‘stump the panel’

Jensen: Wood? Oh would…You have stumped the panel.

Misha: We’re just like awkward now…

Jensen: I mean, I don’t know!

Misha: It’s really hard, isn’t it? Not hard in that sense…

Jensen: facepalm

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They also got a Freaky Friday question. Who would Dean switch with?

Jensen: Bobby. And what Dean would do is sit and watch Golden Girls all day long and not feel guilty about it. What Bobby would do is donuts in the Impala.

Misha: high five!

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Jensen told the story of the being arrested rumor again, much to Misha’s amusement.

Misha: What did you do???

Someone asked about them watching Final Destination.

Jensen: I didn’t get cast in the first one, so I hate watched it.

Misha: I’ve watched…. Less than one…

They reminisced about Supernatural, which I always enjoy. Jensen talked about adlibbing some of the scene with Mary remembering her good times in the Impala’s back seat and they both remembered fondly being directed by Phil Sgriccia.

Jensen: He (Phil) had told Sam (Samantha Smith) to do that and then he came over and whispered to me hey, she might look in the back and remember some good times, and then that was it and he walked away and I was like… and the reaction I had to Phil as he walked away, I just used that in the scene. So that was an unscripted moment, that’s why Phil’s so great and why we all loved working with him. He can give you those little  moments and highlights and it just really tells a story and it’s not even a story that needed to be told, so that was that little moment.

Misha: Phil is really great at finding those things that aren’t necessarily written on the page in the script and pulling them out and saying let’s try this. He started out as an editor so he has an editor’s eye. He’s always thinking of the little details he can plug in in post production. He was, I think, always the best director for opportunities for improvising and second chances and trying something different.

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The last question fan asked about their dream roles.

Jensen: Batman is a dream role.

Misha: Two Face was a dream role.

Somehow the last question fan, no matter who they are, always looks like a perfect representation of the fandom’s reaction to the actors.

Jensen and Misha both chimed in with Rob to sing the Last Question song.

They thanked the fans before ending the panel.

We got a Rich and Rob panel too. They gave a little shout out to their podcast that has them watching every episode of Supernatural, with lots of cast and crew and producer guests, SPN Then and Now.

Rich: How much is the SPN Then and Now podcast?

Rob: It’s free!

Rich: How much is that in Canadian?

Someone asked Rob, what would he not do after what he did on The Boys?

Rob: Obviously nothing…

And I caught some Mark Sheppard also, always a favorite.

Mark: We’re surrounded by love here. And stupid costumes…

(No doubt pointing to a Castiel cosplayer!)

Mark as this priceless photo was projected on the giant screen:

Mark: Thanks to my daughter for that!

Isabella and her mum were also at the con, having a blast – and wreaking havoc like every daughter should be doing to their dad who’s onstage.

Mark: I’m not embarrassed, I did more on Supernatural. (breaks into song) I kissed a boy and I liked it…

On the demon Dean arc:

Mark: Crowley was not excited about doing his job. He was more excited about Demon Dean!

Like just about everyone who worked on Supernatural, Mark had some kind words.

Mark: We got to develop who we really were over the years in that world. We were very protective of our characters.

Someone dared to ask him a hypothetical question.

Mark: Write your own fan fiction! As long as it’s not Crowley and Castiel in black velvet…

Favorite line?

Mark: Where’s your moose?

Drag queen name?

Mark: Something fabulous!

As he ended the panel, Mark had a message of gratitude for the fandom.

Mark: You make it inclusive and a beautiful place to be. I’ve got plenty of things I like to do on weekends, but I can’t think of many things that are better than this. We love you with all our hearts, we do. Look after each other, be nice to each other. If any of you are in serious difficulty, remember the mind is a dangerous place, do not go in there alone. Thank you for our life.

I think the gratitude goes both ways – every convention is a chance to revisit this universe we love and also to spend time with people we’ve met through Supernatural who are now friends.

Pretty much a perfect ending to that panel, and soon the con itself was over too.

We got most of Louden Swain plus Richard Speight, Jr.  singing ‘It’s the end of the con as we know it’ – and then it was!

The flight home was as long and exhausting as the one there, but I admit I did go home smiling. And straight to work, but that’s another story!

–Lynn

You can read chapters by the Supernatural

actors in Family Don’t End With Blood and

There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done all about

their journey on the show and with the fans

(and Jensen Ackles’ and The Boys cast’s thoughts

on ‘The Boys’ in Supes Ain’t Always Heroes)