Welcome back to Humor Nation. Supernatural ran for 15 years, but did you know it took nearly 10 years for Eric Kripke to actually create this series. Kripke left the show after Season 5 as the showrunner, but his name will forever be attached to this show as its his baby. The creator has always been fascinated with popular myth-lores and urban legends. But how did he come up with such a captivating show and larger than life characters? What inspired Eric Kripke to create Supernatural?
So Take A Look At All The Inspirations For The Supernatural Characters, Events, And Storylines
4 THE CONCEPT
Tarzan is a show which was produced and aired on the WB Network, Kripke developed the story for the show therefore WB gave him an opportunity to suggest ideas for the Original show. Urban legends and folklore stories were the main source of his inspiration. His original idea was to feature two tabloid reporters traveling in a van while searching for the truth and fighting the Supernatural entities such as demons. Eric wanted the show to be set on the road because it’s unique and is the best way to tell the stories. He believed every small town has numerous strange stories to tell. The show has taken inspiration from other fantasy supernatural shows such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, The Twilight Zone, and X-Files. John Shiban who had previously worked with X-Files came on board to help with the Supernatural Mythology. But the thing that had a heavy influence on the show is the book ‘On The Road’, a novel written by Jack Kerouac. The book narrates the road adventures of two characters who travel across the country while searching for meaning.
3. CHARACTERS
The two main characters of the show are Sam and Dean Winchester. The inspiration and names for these characters came form Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’ novel which was again based on the real-life characters. However, the creator felt that the name Salt felt pretty weird for a main character so it was modified to Sam. Now the original last name for the characters was meant to be ‘Harrison’ as the creator is a huge fan of the actor Harrison Ford. Also he modeled the character after Ford’s character Han Solo who doesn’t have a single worry in the world. But due to the existence of an actual Sam Harrison in Kansas where the show is set, they removed the last name Harrison. Eventually, they used the last name Winchester which is related to the infamous Winchester Mystery House which was built to contain the spirits. Whereas the character of Sam Winchester could be compared to the characters of Luke Skywalker and Neo who are compelled by their destiny to play a hero when they don’t want to, but eventually accept it and embrace it.