In the special Comic Con edition of TV Guide, Ileane Rudolph asked executive producer Robert Singer for some scoop on season 8.
Will Season 8 hinge on Sam trying to save Dean from Purgatory?
No, we pick up the season a little bit down the line and Dean will have made his way back from Purgatory. We will do flashbacks through the season as to what happened there and what Sam did in the time that Dean was away.
Your fans usually hate it when the brothers are separated. Is that why they’re back together so soon?
We’re aware of that, so we decided to tell their stories in flashbacks and have them relate to the current story. The fact that the boys are going to be together pretty quickly was, we thought, a good thing.
When Castiel and Dean wound up in Purgatory, Cas did his angel disappearing act. Will Misha Collins go missing from Supernatural again?
We’re just framing our ideas now, but our intention is to have Cas back a number of times.
Will Kevin the Prophet be back?
Kevin [played by Osric Chau] is an integral part of the year.
Crowley’s got him in his clutches. Any hints what he’s up to?
Well, you’ve got a prophet who can read these tablets that are supposedly the word of God. Every year we start with a theme–this is our ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ year. The season-long story will be a quest. Its about Kevin and the tablets and the word of God.
Will you bring back any Winchester allies next season? They could use some!
We love Charlie–and she wasn’t seen as a threat to the boys’ relationship–we love Sheriff Mills, and we love Garth. So we have a pretty good cast of people that we’d like to go to. And there’s one new character that we’re tallking about. Its a monster that Dean meets in Purgatory.
Who will be the Big Bad this season?
Its basically an angels-and-demons year. Its not apocalyptic but about who can gain control and keep demons in Hell or angels in Heaven.
Former producer Jeremy Carver, who exec produced the US version of Being Human, is returning to Supernatural, as your new co-showrunner. Will fans notice anything different?
No, Jeremy gave us a couple of years on the show, so I do think this season will be a little less earnest and little more the kind of the stuff we did in seasons 2 and 3, before the weight of all the mythology got us.