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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB9BeK9STvo (starting about 4:15)

I'm curious what you think about Jensen's answer when he was asked about the most enjoyable and least enjoyable parts of producing, particularly how Drake and Meg were cast.

To me, it sounds like the studio had legit concerns about the casting since they kept sending Drake in to do multiple chemistry reads. And the fact that Jensen had to get upset for them to finalize casting means they figured things weren't going to get any better and they had to give up and give in. (Not that Jensen says it that way, but that's how I read it.)

Considering there ended up being very little chemistry amongst the cast of The Winchesters, from your casting perspective, what is your take on his perception and how the studio may have seen things?

link. I have to side with WB's insistence on numerous chemistry reads for Drake because audience can be very forgiving on meandering plots and ridiculous storylines and butchering canon as long as the two leads have amazing chemistry. Whenever Jared and Jensen tell their chemistry audition stories, I’m pretty sure they’re leaving out that Jared likely had chemistry auditions with other various Dean actors. While I haven’t seen Gilmore Girls, I read Jared was the 3rd Dean casted because the OG Dean didn't have enough chemistry with Rory.

“It’s chemistry and vibration that truly empowers connectivity.” – Tim Girvin.

Anyways, Jensen was super stuck on Drake because he was Jared 2.0 and part of his attempt to take over the $PN brand. Had The Winchesters been a success, then a new generation of fans would have their own Jared and then Jensen would be th bridge between fandoms of the OG SPN (aka OG Jared) and SPN 2.0 (aka little Jared, as Drake was called by Jensen and the pilot director). They went this route because Supernatural is about Sam’s hero journey and that’s what the SPN fans subconsciously expect from The Winchesters, so the new young John Winchester was repackaged as Sam 2.0, complete with tall height, lanky built, floppy brown curly hair, and vague Jared-like vibe.

However, WB wasn't looking for male lead who physically could pass for Jared 2.0, they wanted an actor who was on the rise and have good chemistry with Meg. WB likely wanted Meg since she's a regular tv actor with a fanbase and then have her screentest with several actors for John Winchester. Lead roles are cast first because they need to cast supporting actors based on their chemistry with the lead actor. With Jensen's stubbornness on keeping Drake, who only had an okay chemistry with Meg, it affected the rest of the casting of the supporting actors.

Just to remind you how bland the chemistry was in The Winchesters, I watched a single Gotham Knights episode and though it's filled to the brim with dumbass teenage characters, they all had good chemistry with each other. Meaning casting did their job because they didn't get interference from a certain producer.

So Jensen and WB clashed, he wanted Drake and WB wanted an actor who could pass the chemistry audition with Meg. WB may have finally agreed to Jensen's demands with a condition that Jensen narrates and make occasional appearances on the show.

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In the past misha has said castiel started out as a powerful angel but over time the writers starting making him weak and awkard because of mishas personality. Would you say this is the writers just being lazy instead of being creative?

As I mentioned earlier, writers eventually turn characters into the actors, it's believable that writers make Castiel awkward because they saw how awkward Misha was around the cast. Just go to any SPN conventions featuring Misha and you can see that he looks and feels out of place in the fraternity atmosphere. Where else do you think the writers got the idea for endverse!Castiel's harem and having an orgy in the middle of the episode?

As for "weak", do you mean the de-powering of Castiel every season until they stop explaining how his sporadic power works? Castiel was de-powered for the same reason why Sam's power disappeared after season 5,  because otherwise he would be an ex deus machina who could solve cases in the first 5 minutes of every episode.  What are they going to fill for the next 40 minutes?

It’s been long my unpopular opinion that Misha was Singer’s contingency plan since season 5 in case Jared prematurely leaves SPN. That way Jensen then will be promoted to lead and Castiel will be Dean’s new hunting partner. Except Jared didn't leave, and Misha kept waiting for his big day. So in the mean time the writers struggle to figure out what to do with Castiel.

There was a real chance that Jared would not return for season 11 so Misha and his team worked to prepare for his big day, long-time fans remember the YANA debacle. (X) (X). Around late season 13, Jared told WB that he accepted an offer from CBS and will leave SPN after season 14. Misha must have thought his time finally has come so he negotiated to get back on the regular status and the higher salary that comes with it.  Only for they to officially announce that SPN's 15th season will be its last during the filming of the season 14 finale. Imagine Misha’s shock and dismay, emotionally I imagine it felt like a giant middle finger to him.

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Listen to me for a second. I don't know if you've seen some of the things the J2s do or say at conventions, but -okay, I don’t want to put on a tinfoil hat- why do they act so... gay? I get that conventions thrive on a bit of that they seem close, but I feel like they go beyond that whole 'bro' closeness. Sure, they did it on the show too, but still- these are grown men. I haven’t seen many men act like that. Honestly, they’re kind of strange. Please, what I’m writing.

Are there other actors who behave like this? I need something to compare it to.

Do other actors behave like this? Well, yeah kinda. The reason why I'm hesitant is because stunts that Pedro Pascal and Oscar Issac pull are just that, PR stunts. They staged their "cuddling" purely for the photo ops. J2 mostly don't that because it's a bit darker.

The biggest open secret on long running tv series is writers eventually turn the characters into the actors' personality. It's why the Wincest ship happened because the writers were writing what they were seeing. Sam and Dean are not codependent in the clinical term, but Jared and Jensen were. See my "codependency" tag.

And it's not about struggles with same-sex attraction or a gender-identity issue, most of the time the women and men in these codependent-ish friendships never had homosexual feelings before and often still desire a romantic heterosexual relationship.  But they began to find their desires for intimacy and security are met in this idolatrous friendship. 

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I still find it ironic that JA himself was the one who freed Jared's fans from having to support the guy even when Jensen's fans never returned the favor.

AA probably hoped that Soldier Boy would give them new people to their cause to make up for the loss but The Boys fandom is not as invested as the SPN fandom.

I do love how Jensen's highly specific superstition end up being the final permission straw for Jared girls to stop being nice for the sake of fake peace and say what’s really on their mind. Their “I’VE BEEN FREED” still rings throughout the fandom to this day.

It's telling that The Boys doesn’t even have a strong presence in Tumblr. That's because TB is not the kind of show that makes you grow to love the characters, instead, you either pity the characters or you despise them. Not helped that TB (and Kripke) blatantly hates half of the fandom. None of that foster discussion, creativity, or fanfictions in the fandom. Finally, The Boys is irrelevant in terms of cultural impact, that hasn’t changed since season 1. As soon as the series finale episode is dropped, it’s going to be memory-holed forgotten, like 90% of popular tv shows for the past 7 decades. The remaining 10% adds to the survival bias.

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https://x.com/thespnverse/status/1912219191677161897

So, Jensen's saying Jared's out of his comfort zone on The Boys... any idea what that could be? I mean, Jared's played just about every character type in SPN. What else is there?

link who knows, it could be another over hype promotion that The Boys is infamously known for.

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When I look at the articles, I notice something I can't ignore. On one hand, two new people are announced, but only Jared's picture appears in the publication. Then, in the VR mention, a major magazine states that he will be the main character. Whether this was a mistake or not, more than 10 days have passed, and the information remains uncorrected.

This is just my personal observation, but it seems to me that the media gives more attention to Jared and anything he's involved in (or even when he's not) compared to the rest of the former Supernatural cast. What do you think?

Yup, I've said forever here that Jared gets the most mainstream media attention out of the SPN's main cast. It’s why the AAs were so butthurt over the 1st billing because they knew Jared would get the lion share of the attention, promotion, and the meaty storylines.   Adding salt to the wound was Jared coming from a hit mainstream show so he already was better known than Jensen.  It’s why AAs campaigned their flat asses off to switch the mytharc from Sam to Dean so that Jensen would get attention by being the 1st lead.

Jared's social media posts also gets picked up by the mainstream media so often has to get 'resolved' in the mainstream media i.e. that New York Times article post-The Winchester announcement debacle by the Ackles.

Now that Jensen is getting first billing for two upcoming shows, you would think the AAs are happy because he'll start to get more attention from mainstream media and trade papers, but nah they're still super focused on Jared.

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This was an interesting article. What do you think, is there a stigma for actors who came from CW?

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/steven-krueger-hollywood-stigma-actors-cw-network/

Link. holy smoke I don't agree with this, what the L is he smoking!? And he's not only saying actors, but everybody behind the camera is stigmatized by the industry for working on projects aired on CW. Like, dude, the industry is hard for everybody no matter what network you got your start on!

The old CW was a massive launching platform for countless writers and showrunners into the industry by honing their talent and learning on the job by being on the set. The old CW essentially gave the key to showrunning and these writers went on to write and/or showrun on bigger networks. CW basically set the stage for Marvel to become the juggernaut it became.

Sorry not sorry but this Steven guy sounds a bit like season-6 Misha Collins because he thinks he should have gotten a bigger career sooner. Working on CW/WB-aired shows certainly didn't slow down Sebastian Stan, Blake Lively, Justin Baldino, Melissa McCarthy, David Boreanaz, Michelle Williams, Kristen Bell, Gina Rodriguez, Maggie Q, etc.

Now with all that said, the old CW had also contributed to getting a few sub-par writers into positions they have no business being in. SPN’s own Megan Friztmartin being one of them and she went on to ruin Batman’s Tim Drake with her bisexual-fetish fixation. Fanboys complained that she made Tim all about his sexuality instead of a detective/student/hero. From 2010 until 2022, the steaming wars caused a glut of contents and it became a golden age for bad actors and writers.

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In this last jib it was said that the guys were filming for 5 days, but also Misha said he was done filming, however both Jared and Jensen went back to Canada together to continue filming. I had no doubt that it would be a sporadic thing, but that was quick.

This further convinces me that Misha's character is getting the Rob Benedict's character treatment.

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Hey! Is there any chance you could please not tag your anti misha posts with misha collins? I know that’s a very big ask. I have seen the way Jared tags get disrespected by people who don’t like him, and the death threats many of you get from people like Mist are really disturbing and disgusting. I would love to be able to enjoy the Misha tags without resorting to blocking though, as I don’t think disliking Misha justifies blocking personally.

In saying that, I do understand if that’s not something you feel like you can do given how much you’ve probably been burned, but wanted you to know that at least one of us wants to be able to ask nicely and respects that you have your own opinion, even if we are often drowned out by the louder parts of our fandom.

I give you credit that you are asking nicely. My answer is "no" unless you produce receipts that you've asked Misha/Destiel fans to not tag their anti Jared/Jensen posts with Jared and Jensen tags. Once you produce those receipts when I'll use the anti Misha tags going foward.

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I know in some cases, smut has launched Hollywood careers. However, once you're an actor with an established nice guys brand, if you go from network CW to something edgy like The Boys, does it make it harder to go back?// Like, do you see Jensen getting a Big Sky part now, after having done this even if the spinoff goes for more than a year? Jared, too, since he's on the brink, already announced, for a FC spinoff. Will CBS look and see if TB devalues his image with fans? (He always had a good Q)

Yes, traditionally once you go smut, your career goes splat. But this was before social media and their thot influencers and onlyfans and New Media spewing out 500+ television shows every year.

With that said, Jensen hasn't gone full smut on The Boys, not even a quarter smut. He had one naked butt scene and it's kind of expected for male actors to have one gratuitous butt scene in their career even if its actually their body double (see any male lead movie stars of the '80s). If not one butt scene, then endless shirtless scenes. And Jensen played SB as someone who was misunderstood in a fish-out-of-his-time trope, not an actual villain until the last minute kill-the-son and his dumbass son mission, which feels massively out of character for the audience because there was no built up towards it.

My guess is Jared will have it in his TB contract that his character wouldn't be sexually humiliated or debased.

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Wait, if Cliff isn't a bodyguard, then who is he? I know tinhat thought of him as some kind of enforcer, but was he their driver/assistant? And considering all the bad rumors that have been going around about him (including his connections to j2 fans), I don't understand why they still work with him. Maybe it's because of old friendship or pity.

I take it you haven't been to a corporate convention.  They have real security detail who are young and buffed to escort Jared and Jensen around.  If you were in the fandom in the early years, Cliffy would regularly posted the locations of J2 as well as pictures onto his social media accounts. Real bodyguards never NEVER give out pictures and locations of their charges; in another country they would be shot for that.  

Cliffy was a driver and a glorified baggage handler hired by WB. He calls himself a (fake) bodyguard because it sounds better than driver. J2 need a driver because the network doesn’t want them to drive himself home after 12 or 14 hours on the set.  That's why Cliffy posted online the locations of J2, to show WB he’s on the job and to remind the Padaleckis and Ackles to behave. 

Handlers are people wranglers, they get the clients from point A to point B. If the handlers are ambitious or smart enough, they become advisors or unofficial managers.  Think of the baggage handlers at the airport, they make sure they get your baggage on and off the plane, but if they see something iffy with your baggage they report to the airport, not you the owner of the iffy baggage. 

Handlers are supposed to be invisible to the public, but in J2′s case, some visibility was necessary because it was before Jared or Jensen got their social media accounts, so Cliff served to some capacity as their social media gatekeeper by shutting down fake Js tweeters and speaking on their behalf, allegedly.  Like the infamous coin toss to get fans to vote in the PCA for Jensen but conveniently does not include video of the said coin toss with the Js’ alleged witnessing and approval of the result. Once J2 got their own social media accounts, Cliffy had to step back publicly.

Cliffy wasn’t the original driver/handler, that was a dude name Bob. There was an altercation between Bob and Jensen so he abandoned Jensen by the side of the road, went to Cliffy to throw the car keys at him with, “it’s all yours”.

Since SPN ended, Cliff no longer serves as official driver. I think he’s a bit of a charity case for the Padaleckis. The Padaleckis give Cliffy extra gigs as their glorified baggage handler. Besides, you know that quote -  better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.  Meaning it’s better to deal with a someone you already know than with a new person that could be worse.

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Well, CBS just gave Tom Ellis a straight to series, Dick Wolf show. While I like Tom Ellis, I must say I was hoping Jared would get this for either Fire Country or his medical show. I am not hearing anything about them? Have they stalled? Glad he will be seen in The Boys at least, but that isn’t until 2026. Hope it is more than a single episode, and hope he is no where near Misha.

FBI: CIA , like all greenlight shows, was in the works for at least 2 years. Just like Jensen's show Vought Rising was announced in 2024 and won't air until late 2026 or early 2027 at best, meanwhile there isn't much to report during the two years. Just like you're not hearing much currently about Jared's new shows, because they're in development. By the time CBS announced Tom Ellis's new show, it was already in production since early 2025 and casting started in spring. FBI:CIA will air in 2026 or 2027. Between 2025 and 2026/2027 you won't hear much about the show except for casting news. Then you have Jared who keeps most things close to his vest. It was 25 years before he shared about his first holding deal with WB.

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I don't really have a question for you (or rather, the timeline is tumultuous and I question just about everything) I did, however, want to drop into your inbox and send you good wishes. Hope all is well.

Thank you friend!

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https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-streaming-losses-top-1-billion-year Seeing the news and considering that Apple has produced good shows like Severance and Silo, I am surprised by the amount of losses they have incurred. I understand that this platform does not have as much popularity worldwide as Netflix or Max, but the figures really surprised me. What do you think about this? So far, I've only seen that news, but I assume that Netflix, due to its popularity, is one of the platforms that doesn’t have as many losses. However, I think their budget for some productions is excessive, such as the recent movie starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, The Electric State, which has a budget of $320 million and won't even be released in theaters. Considering the directors and that Millie Bobby Brown is a talent associated with Netflix, plus her last film was among the most-watched globally, I guess the budget is high, but $320 million?

Then there’s HBO, which has very good shows, both old and recent, that tend to receive positive reviews and acclaim. You’ve already talked about the consequences of streaming on the industry, but I wonder how it is that some platforms experience significant losses while others allocate higher budgets than many feature films. There are extremes in terms of money management.

The biggest difference is Netflix and HBO/Max have to succeed in entertainment because that's all they have, it's the only way they make money.   Netflix famously said that they wanted to become HBO before HBO became Netflix via Max.

Apple and Amazon are tech companies, not entertainment companies. What's $7 billion in annual costs for TV programming (and losing over $1 billion) at a company that generates more than $500 billion in sales?

There are 3 phases to the streaming business:

Phase One: Everyone decided to lose their minds and dump millions into shows that didn't have a chance in hell of being profitable.

They borrow money from Silicon Valley banks, getting into massive debts by making a whole bunch of shows that nobody watches in order in order to crowd out competitors. 

The glut of tv shows drive up cost. I read that shows for Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and Perry Mason were filming at the same time, but there were only so many wardrobe houses with 1930’s period clothes.  So more had to be shipped in from other places, driving up the costs. That’s just one example of how all the massive amounts of shows being filmed for the different platforms were driving up the costs of making shows.

Phase Two: Profitability. This means less shows, and an introduction of advertising.   So you aren’t getting unlimited content for 10 bucks a month forever. The math never made sense.

Phase Three: Streaming Wars.  Production spending falls to below 2022 levels.

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I've read your commentary on YANA and the whole debacle, but you failed to mention the god-awful merchandise they tried to sell.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18pVAkZvLq/

What even is this? Who picked the creepy horror-show font and who decided that Jensen and Misha (mostly Misha) on a hoodie would work? LMAO!!!

It's also incredibly obvious that Jared was left out of the program on purpose, even though he (and Mark) were kind enough to throw them a bone and pose for that picture.

I'm just very grateful that cash-grab charity campaign was short-lived and that the AKF campaign is continuing to thrive, 10 years on.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHdwa_Vs31v/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Link Yeah the slasher horror vibe design was a really strange choice.

 the font design of “you are NOT ALONE” looked like a scrawling of a murder victim's last desperate message warning us that the killer is in the house. Even the Halloween movie poster didn't have slasher fonts. 

Then you have Misha looking like a stalker to Jensen who looked like he's resigned and won't fight off an axe murderer. 

In contrast to this:

The “Always Keep Fighting” text is bold and clear while Jared’s stance is confident.  He’s not afraid. He’s not looking for a fight (hence the crossed arms and relaxed shoulders) but he stands his ground and will fight back if you're stupid enough to go at him.

Link. Cool that Jared commemorated the 10th anniversary. He fought hard for himself and his message.

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The Boys has had four seasons already but Misha has never had an offer to be a part of it. It's not like he had anything else to do, after all. Now that we're in the final season and Kripke has finally managed to recruit Jared, here comes Misha too. Isn't that a little funny, though? It's certainly not a coincidence, why invite Miaha now along with Jared and not before?

Yeah it's noticeable that Jared was the only one whom Kripke was publicly promposing to while everybody else asked Kripke for a job.  Jensen was public about calling Kripke for a job.

After Jared, Jensen, and Jeffery, Misha is the 4th most known SPN cast member so it would look a little strange if Kripke doesn't invite Misha when he's been using the #SPNFamily for several years when promoting The Boys.  My guess is Misha will get the Rob Benedict treatment.

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Okay what's with Jared haters trying to gaslight everybody into thinking Jared begged Kripke to be on TB? We literally saw Kripke talk about it before Walker was even cold in the ground. Or that he keeps constantly bringing it up just because he answered a fan's question about it at a con??? They're flipping nuts.

Because they hate that it was Jensen who publicly said he 'begged' Kripke for a job, even though Jensen was just networking like 99% of the actors does.

Because they hate that it was Kripke who publicly begged Jared to be on TB, even though Kripke knew Jared couldn't really say "no" for the sake of maintaining good will.

Because they hate that Jared had Walker before Supernatural ended, so they tried to gaslight that CBS offered Walker to Jensen first when that's not how the industry works.

Because the biggest reason is most Jared girls are indifferent about Jensen and that makes the Ackles Army stans gaslight even harder!