When Did Supernatural Start? A Look Back at All 15 Seasons

When did Supernatural start, and how did it end?

Supernatural premiered on The WB on September 13, 2005, and the first season ended on May 4, 2006. Eric Kripke created the series, and it went on to run for 15 seasons and 327 episodes, ending on November 19, 2020. That makes it The CW's longest-running series and, by the Wikipedia listing, the longest-running fantasy series in American television history.

The answer to when did Supernatural start comes with a footnote. The network changed under its feet: in 2006 The WB and UPN merged to form The CW, and Supernatural was the only new WB show kept. Season 2 premiered on The CW on September 28, 2006, and the show stayed there for the rest of its run.

The pilot and the first three seasons

The first episode introduces Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who have lost touch. Dean (Jensen Ackles) breaks into Sam's (Jared Padalecki) college living quarters to tell him that their father, John Winchester (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan), has gone on a hunting trip and not returned. Sam is not thrilled but agrees to team up just to find dad. They do not find their father by the end of the episode, and Sam's girlfriend, played by Adrianne Palicki, dies in the same way their mother, Mary (Samantha Smith), did, as the opening flashback shows.

That is the start of the road trip that powers the show, and it is the clearest answer to when did Supernatural start in story terms: with a break-in, a missing father and a fire. For its first three seasons, Supernatural follows the standard network fantasy playbook. Most weeks are monster-of-the-week stories, and an overarching thread keeps viewers hunting for John, who is found and then lost. Then the structure breaks: John dies, Dean sells his soul, and by the end of season 3 Dean is banished to Hell, which sets everything in motion.

Katie Cassidy and Lauren Cohan were part of the main cast in season 3 only, and the show's center stays with the two leads. The chemistry between Padalecki and Ackles is the feature critics have praised most consistently.

Seasons 4 and 5: the angels arrive

Dean's banishment to Hell at the end of season 3 leads to the show's biggest reveal, in season 4: angels exist. Season 4 introduces Castiel (Misha Collins), who grows from a guest into a regular, and the season sets up the foundation for the series' lore, drawing on God, the choirs of angels, Milton's Lucifer and the Apocalypse. It stays flexible, and later seasons let other religious mythologies make cameos.

Season 4 also brings in Chuck Shurley (Rob Benedict), a prophet who is later revealed to be God, and Adam Milligan (Jake Abel), an illegitimate son of John. The season follows Sam, Dean and the angels trying to stop Lilith from breaking the last seal and releasing Lucifer, played by Mark Pellegrino. They fail.

Season 5 deals with the fallout. The Apocalypse, as the show defines it, means the archangel Michael battling his younger brother Lucifer, using Sam and Dean as vessels. Because one of them would kill the other, the brothers refuse. This is also where Crowley, played by Mark Sheppard, arrives as one of the series' great antagonists who later becomes an ally. The season ends with Sam, as Lucifer's vessel, and Adam, as Michael's, locked in the Cage in Hell, and Dean free to live a hunter-free life. It was meant to be the end of the series.

Supernatural season by season

Season arcs follow the series' public episode summaries.

The long middle and the end

Season 5 was supposed to be the last season, but the show returned for season 6, and the show took full advantage of the biblical box that season 4 had opened. Over the next decade the brothers took on the Leviathans, the Gates of Hell, the Mark of Cain and the Darkness, who turns out to be Amara, God's older sister. Season 11 brings the reveal that Chuck, the prophet introduced in season 4, is God.

Season 12 returns to a more grounded story with the British Men of Letters but keeps its biblical roots. Lucifer fathers a son, Jack, played by Alexander Calvert, who opens a portal to an apocalyptic alternate universe and releases an evil Michael. Seasons 13 and 14 center on Jack, who is adopted by the Winchesters and Castiel, and on getting Michael out of Dean's body.

Season 15: the rebellion and the finale

The last season lines up the antagonist the show had been building toward since season 4: God. The Winchesters rebel against him, and Castiel dies. Jack becomes the new God. In the series finale, which aired on November 19, 2020, Dean dies and Sam lives to old age. The show that began with two brothers in a car ended with their story told to its conclusion.

The long run was not without its critics. According to the Wikipedia article, reviewers praised the first five seasons and criticized the later seasons as repetitive and confusing, while still crediting the chemistry between the leads. That split is the common ground for most fans: they love the brothers, they love the first five seasons, and they argue about the rest.

Storylines fans return to

The Apocalypse arc of seasons 4 and 5 gets the most praise, in part because it introduces so many of the show's best-loved characters: the archangels Michael, Lucifer and Gabriel (played by Richard Speight Jr. in the Trickster/Loki guise), Crowley and Death (Julian Richings). Ellen and Jo (Samantha Ferris and Alona Tal), introduced in season 2, die honorable hunter deaths in the effort to prevent it. Season 5 also introduces Jesse Turner (Gattlin Griffith), the Antichrist, in the episode "I Believe the Children Are Our Future."

The Men of Letters storyline gave the production a central location, a bunker with a library, in place of a string of hotel rooms, and it lets viewers glimpse the Winchesters' family tree beyond their parents. It runs into the Knights of Hell, in particular Abaddon (Alaina Huffman), who is responsible for the near extinction of the Men of Letters and pushes Dean to seek out the First Blade. That leads to the Mark of Cain run, which brings in Cain (Timothy Omundson), the witch Rowena (Ruth Connell) and the return of Charlie Bradbury (Felicia Day).

Not every arc earned the same affection. The Leviathan storyline of season 7 is remembered mostly for the death of Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver), and the angel civil war of seasons 8 and 9 has its share of detractors, though Kevin Tran (Osric Chau) became a fan favorite along the way. Season 12's British Men of Letters, with Arthur Ketch (David Haydn-Jones) and Lady Toni Bevell (Elizabeth Blackmore), is another divisive chapter.

Episodes worth knowing

Across the long middle, the show's best work often came in standalone episodes where it let loose. Fans commonly point to "Frontierland," "The French Mistake," "Death's Door," "As Time Goes By," "Bad Boys," "Fan Fiction," "Baby," "Just My Imagination," "Scoobynatural" and "Lebanon," the 300th episode, which reunites Sam, Dean and Mary with John.

These installments share a quality that explains the show's longevity. Supernatural never pretends to be more than it is, and it knows how to have fun. Even when the mythology got heavy, a funny hour was never far away.

Verdict: where Supernatural stands

As a long-running genre show, Supernatural has an unusual shape. Its strongest stretch, seasons 4 and 5, comes early, and it ends with a clear plan that plays out to a real conclusion. Everything after is, in effect, bonus material, some of it great and some of it hard to defend.

For readers asking when did Supernatural start and whether it is worth beginning now, the practical advice is simple. Watch the pilot, because it sets the whole tone. Continue through season 5 for the best-constructed story. After that, treat the show as an anthology of arcs: pick the Mark of Cain run for drama and the standalone comedies for the sheer joy of seeing the cast play.

The series now sits at 327 episodes, and a viewer starting from the beginning has a lot of road ahead. Episode 300, "Lebanon," is a good marker for how long it took to get there.

Sources

• Supernatural (American TV series), Wikipedia — premiere date, season count and cast