With the chilling admission that Supernatural nearly did not receive a third season order, Eric Kripke has made many Supernatural fans nervous about the prospect of a fourth season.  Part of this anxiety comes from the fact that for months the solution to solving Supernatural's popularity issues has been the addition of two new female leads, which fans seem to universally agree is not the answer to the problem.  While the ‘chick factor' may be drawing the ire of fans, there are other changes coming to the show that may be more welcome.

Kripke's context for the new characters as foils rather than love interests certainly helped to calm fans' jangled nerves, but the doubts remained about whether adding new characters would be enough to save Supernatural from its ratings woes.  Obviously, the goal for Kripke and company is to have fans refocus their anti-hot-chick angst into efforts to bring new viewers.

Future changes to Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam's (Jared Padalecki) journey will take a leap into the past with season 3.  Now that the war is officially on, and Sam's life clock is ticking down, expect a more intense and focused subtext in season 3.  Part of that will be adding flashbacks into the Supernatural formula to give us a look back into the brother's lives to see how they were brought up to be the young men they are.

After the panel at San Diego Comicon, it was very clear that what the team has in mind for fans this season is far from a hormone baiting dumbing down, but rather we will see the urgency that has built sluggishly over the past two seasons reaching a fever pitch of action and revelation that Supernatural does best.

Supernatural's third season begins October 4 on the CW.


- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
source: Moviesonline
(Image Courtesy of the CW)