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Jensen Ackles officially on twitter , let's start the party :D !

JENSEN FEATURED IN HARPERSBAZAAR CHINA

Over the previous nine seasons, Supernatural has introduced a lot of characters, but few have gone on to secure recurring roles. Fewer still have clicked with viewers the way Charlie Bradbury has. She even scored her own Funko Pop! vinyl figure.

Played by Felicia Day, Charlie is a LARPing computer expert with a fondness for Star Wars, aliases and, um, unusual tattoos who was introduced to the Winchester brothers in Season 7, only to return (twice!) in Season 8 before leaving with Dorothy to help free Oz in Season 9.

However, as most fans know by now, that wasn't the last they'll see of Charlie: She returns from Oz this season in an episode the show's producers are keeping under wraps.

But while speaking with Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson about the launch of Marvel'sSilk series, CBR News took the opportunity to ask him about the creation of Charlie Bradbury, the appeal of the character, and his hopes for her future.

CBR News: One of the reasons I think Supernatural fans are so invested in the show is not just because of the Winchester brothers, but the great cast of supporting and recurring characters that surround them. What is it about characters like Bobby Singer, Garth, Kevin Tran, Castiel and now Charlie that has fans so excited about them and clamoring for their return?

Robbie Thompson: That's a great question. I think the core DNA of the show is Sam and Dean and the relationship they have and the many directions that gets pushed and pulled. And the reason I think these supporting characters pop so much on our show is that there's such a great opportunity with all these characters to see different sides of our main characters.

For example it's been really fun as a writer to watch Sam and Dean interact with Charlie. So I think these characters " whether it's Bobby, Garth, or even Crowley " allow us to show different sides of our protagonists. Also in private moments they let them reveal things that they're maybe not ready to reveal or able to reveal to their brother. Any character is a mirror into another character's soul, and I think all these characters that you brought up whether it's Bobby, Charlie, or any of our supporting cast reflect and also show the contrast in this core relationship.

They're also so much fun to write for as actors. Because as actors they bring a completely different dynamic to the well-established one between Jared [Padalecki] and Jensen [Ackles]. For example, it was always a thrill to write for Jim Beaver because he brings a completely different energy to the scene and the dynamic that they all have as actors.

It's the same with Felicia Day. Felicia came to play from day one. She really stood her own and brought out a great dynamic. As actors they all found a really fun rhythm. I think it's a lot of fun, and I'm speaking as a fan, to watch the core dynamic get tested and sometimes challenged by these supporting character and what these actors bring. I remember last season when Tim Omundson was Cain, his scenes with Jensen's Dean and Mark [Sheppard]s Crowley really popped because you could tell they were all having a great time on set and it really translated to the characters.

You created Charlie for the Season 7 episode, "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo." What inspired her creation? And how fully fleshed out was the character when you began writing the episode?

What inspired her creation was a couple of different things. Obviously with the title, Lisbeth Salander was definitely an inspiration. I love that character. I love [Stieg Larsson's] books and the movie, but we wanted to find a different sort of spin on a hacker character.

The original pitch was actually completely different. I knew that the story was basically going to be very myth-based, and my pitch for it was, "Hey, could we do an episode like the movieThe Insider, where there's this Russell Crowe character within Dick Roman's empire who is a whistleblower?" That eventually evolved into something much, much different, and I think much, much better thanks to [then showrunner] Sera Gamble, who is a fantastic writer and was a fantastic boss.

Then with regards to how fleshed out the character was? I've been lucky enough to introduce a few new characters on the show and as a writer I always like to write out a very detailed back story. Knowing a character's history helps me find their voice. Nine times out of ten none of that stuff will end up on the page. [Laughs]

It's just work that I do as sort of due diligence, but one of the reasons Charlie's character was introduced in general was that episode was the one where we thought Jared was going to have his first child. We wanted the boys to be in that episode together too. So we knew we needed a character that was really fleshed out and could hold their own for the days we were shooting because Sera was obviously concerned and wanted to make sure that Jared could be there for the birth of his child. The funny thing was that Jared's son ended up being born while we were shooting the next episode. [Laughs] So it ended up all being for naught.

I wanted to make sure Charlie was a fully fleshed-out character, and I drew up a pretty detailed backstory. Because we brought her back for three other episodes we got to tell about 75-80 percent of what was in that original document. Some of it changed.

As an interesting side note, I did not meet Felicia until after her first episode was shot, but a lot of the choices that she made were so spot-on due to some of the backstory. The notes she was playing in between beats and the history she brought to the character to make her feel fully realized, a lot of it was on the exact same page as I was even though we hadn't actually met and we hadn't shared the character's backstory. So it's a real testament to her as an actor. She made some really strong and great choices.

So Felicia was cast after you wrote the episode?

She was. I finished the original draft of the script and handed it in. I felt good about the draft, but I was nervous because there was a lot of Charlie Bradbury in that episode, and I didn't know who the actor playing her was going to be. You never know with these things if you'll get an actor that can carry full days of shooting.

Then I'll never forget. Sera Gamble sent me a very short email and all it said was, "Felicia Day. Booked. Charlie Bradbury." And I was so excited. I did another pass on the script after she was cast, and then Sera did another pass on the script as well, because once we knew we had Felicia we knew we had a great actor and we could give her a few more jokes. We could let some of that history play a bit more, and let her go toe-to-toe with the boys. So we were so lucky to get her, and we're so lucky to have her.

You wrote all of Charlie's subsequent episodes as well. What was it like collaborating with Felicia in bringing that character to life?

It's funny, I remember watching her in dailies for her first episode, and my first thought was that I cannot wait to bring this character back. She made so many great choices as an actor with lines that weren't funny and she made them funny, and some that were funny that she added a lot of weight and history to.

In a couple of her episodes there are references to The Empire Strikes Back, of the Han Solo and Princess Leia Lines, "I love you"/"I know." I still love the way she played that in the dailies for "The Girl With the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo." I had written it as sort of a jokey, ha-ha moment, but she played it with such history, like she had heard that line so many times, and she played it in a very genuine way. It was really unexpected, and I remember that being the first bit of dailies that I saw of her work. So I really wanted to bring her back.

When you have an actor like that you that you know you can really lean on from both a performance and storytelling stand point it just makes you want to write for them more. Also, she has such great chemistry with the boys that you'd even want to write scenes where it's just the three of them hanging out.

So it's been a great collaboration. Felicia deserves a lot of credit for bringing that character to life, and frankly she's the reason why that character keeps coming back. I have the great pleasure of writing that character, but it's really her strength as an actor and her choices as an actor that's made it possible to bring her back so many times. We're really lucky to have her.

Let's talk a little more about Charlie's experiences on the show and her relationships. From my perspective she appears a little closer with Dean than she is with Sam, is that correct?

I guess so. A lot of people have pointed that out. For me it's just one of those things where it just kind of shook out that way from a timing standpoint, but I think there is a little bit more of a connection there. Hopefully in the upcoming episodes you'll see a little more of a connection with both brothers.

I think she loves both boys, but there's definitely a big brother-little sister vibe to the relationship between all three of them. I think she and Dean though have just been through a couple more adventures together. I think there's a part of Charlie's character that's able to access the secret geeky part of Dean Winchester: getting him to LARP, which is something he wouldn't normally do, getting him to appreciate the logic behind a video game, or appreciateGame of Thrones. I think she's able to tease that part out of him.

At the same time, I think she has just as much a bond and a connection to Sam. They're both computer-literate, nerdy, hacker types. That's something I hope we get to explore as well in future episodes.

As you said, Charlie's relationship with the boys is a big brother-little sister one and not a romantic one, which is cool and refreshing. That's partly because Charlie isSupernatural's first major human LGBT character, right?

I believe so. She definitely is the most prominent, but for me Charlie was never going to be defined by her gender or her sexuality. She came fully formed to me at the very beginning, when she was introduced. The first bit I wrote for Charlie was her having that private moment in the elevator and dancing to a song like nobody was watching. She's got this incredible spirit and drive. I love getting to explore that every time we get to play with her character.

Let's move to Charlie's return this season. I understand if you have to be vague to avoid spoilers since it's a ways off, but the last time we saw Charlie in Season 9s "Slumber Party" she was embarking on a great quest to help liberate Oz. What kind of shape will Charlie be in when she returns from Oz?

All I can really say is Charlie definitely comes back from Oz and she',s brought back something that's pretty scary. She's going to have to confront it with the boys.

One of the great things about knowing you're working with Felicia is she, as an actor, really gave us permission to let her character grow. So we've always tried to tell a new chapter of Charlie's life when she appears. I always believe that every character is the hero of their own story and that' definitely true with Charlie. This episode is another chapter in her ongoing journey and continual growth as a character.

Finally, can you talk at all about the dynamics we'll see in the episode where Charlie returns? Might she have some scenes with "Demon" Dean?

I can't really say anything about that, but people have asked about Charlie and scenes with other cast members and characters. I can't comment about that for this episode, but it's definitely something I would love to see. I would love to see her in scenes with Castiel and Crowley. We actually had a scene with her and Crowley in the "Slumber Party" episode that got cut.

I love writing for Charlie Bradbury and I'm very excited that she's returning for Supernatural's10th season. I certainly hope that this isn't the last time we see her. I hope she's a character in the Supernatural universe for years and years to come.

Supernatural airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. Silk debuts from Marvel in February.

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THE STARS OF SUPERNATURAL ON 200 DEMON-FIGHTING EPISODES

BY KYLE ANDERSON ON NOVEMBER 11, 2014

Tonight is a milestone in television. A primetime drama, a GENRE show no less, has reached its 200th episode. Two. Hundred. For a show to reach 100 episodes in this market - with rampant cancellations plaguing shows with even the most vocal of fan bases - is considered a rarity. But not Supernatural. The CW's flagship series is currently on its tenth season and nobody involved seems to be ready to pack it in yet. The episode in question, "Fan Fiction", is a musical ode to the lives and travails of Sam and Dean Winchester (played to Tumblr-loving delight by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, respectively) done entirely by high school girls. It's at once tongue-in-cheek and completely earnest, a real love letter to the people who've kept the show on the air so long.

At a recent red carpet event celebrating the 200th episode, I got to speak to the stars and creator of Supernatural to talk about the show's continued viability, the importance of its fans, and what exactly we have to look forward to for the rest of the tenth season.

The whole saga began back in 2005 in the very last year of The WB Network's existence, and its continued existence was very much up in the air right away. Creator Eric Kripke told me, "Day one of every writers' room on the show I always said this was our last season, so let's smoke em if we got em." He certainly had a plan, which has become the stuff of legend now, for a full arc to the series, but whether he actually got there was another matter. "I was really hoping we'd get to Season 5 because I had this story I wanted to tell and I wanted to be able to get there. That it's gone double that is humbling." Kripke stepped away from the series after this milestone was reached, but he's as proud as any parent could be that it's kept going, adding "You never know that anything you're ever going to write is going to work, and for it to work this long is surreal."

Jensen Ackles, who's been playing Dean since Season 1 Episode 1, also didn't expect to be talking about episode 200. "I didn't think we were going to get to Season 2," he said. "I knew that we had a good show. I knew that we had a very, very creative and intellectual writer in Eric, and I knew it had the potential to be something. But, the industry is so fickle. We're talking ten years ago when shows had an 87% failure rate even if they got on the air. So, just to make it to episode 3, we were already beating odds."

But here they are now, a decade later, and one thing that can be said for all of the cast of Supernatural - Ackles and Padalecki specifically - is that they adore the show and the fans who watch it. It's palpable that they couldn't be prouder, or more grateful, that their show has stood the test of time, and "Fan Fiction" is a way of sharing a bit of that gratefulness with the fans. "There are so many ways that we could have said thanks' to the fans," Padalecki said, "we've done 200 episodes and we're here purely and totally because of the fans, and we're so grateful and it's so difficult to explain that." This, he said, led to the kind of episode that fans will receive tonight. "The writers and producers really went through a whole collage of ideas and finally settled on this, and I'm happy" he continues with a nod. "I think it's the proper way to be true to Supernatural but also have a little salute to the fans. It's a funny interpretation of Sam and Dean kind of going meta again, but not meta for Jared and Jensen; meta for Sam and Dean. It's always fun to see them on their heels, because they're these big guys who kill evil things, but they get nervous around high school girls in a musical is kind of a fun situational comedy kind of bit."

The fandom for Supernatural is as rabid and fervent as any beloved genre program, but they've got youth on their side. Misha Collins who plays fan-favorite Castiel, the fallen angel, chalks their continued success on young people being able to catch up with the show on the internet. "A couple of years ago," he said, "Warner Bros struck a deal with Netflix and there was this explosion of high school and college kids who were probably too young to watch it when it started on television but now are old enough to catch up with the whole thing so all of a sudden the fanbase which seemed like it was quite a bit older, 20s and 30s, was now high school and college." He adds with a chuckle, "The older we get, the younger our fans seem to get which is counterintuitive to say the least."

Mark Sheppard, who plays the crossroads demon Crowley, another recurring character that fans have embraced, echoed Collins' belief in Netflix and other new media helping keep the show vital. "The fans keep replicating," he said. "That's the most incredible thing. I was just with a group of fans, 12, 13, 14, 15 years old, who were huge Supernatural fans. They weren't around at the beginning, so it's a new generation and with new delivery systems and way that we get our content, it's possible to watch 9 seasons of a show and binge-watch it."

"I think it's just good luck that we happen to be a group of people who've embraced the fans," Collins replied to my question about how the cast connects with the people who watch them. "It's easy to step into a dynamic where you're an actor on a show or a quote-unquote celebrity where they say "fans need to be on the other side, I need to be over here, we need to keep our distance from one another." We really embraced them early on and I think that that really helped fuel the fanbase. These people are personal, accessible, and willing to come out and do these events and meet us and so we have gotten to know the fans and they've gotten to know us in a way that none of us ever expected; totally and completely unexpected."

So what exactly is the secret of the show's success? It couldn't possibly just be availability; something has to keep people coming back week to week. Creator Kripke thinks it's twofold: "The short answer is Jared and Jensen," he says, "but the long answer is, it's not a show about monsters, it's a show about family and I think because of that people really relate to it. Everyone can relate to having a family they both love and that drives them nuts and that they fight with and that they'd fight for. So I think because of that emotional core, people are really able to connect with it, and they wouldn't be able to if the connection wasn't real and genuine between Jared and Jensen. Each of them alone has incredible charisma, but together, their connection is really what makes Supernatural what it is."

Padalecki thinks the show's longevity comes from its ability to change things up but keep things grounded. "Supernatural is obviously a fantastical show about demons and goblins and ghouls," he says, "and Dean's possessed and Sam's Lucifer and they go to Hell and yadda yadda, but I think we deal with very human issues. One thing that we deal with in this season specifically is dealing with the feeling you get as a human being after you've done something you really wish you didn't, wishing you could turn back the clock, but you can't, and how are you going to move forward?"

And Ackles summed the whole thing up very nicely, saying it's all about the people he's come to call family. "There've been so many remarkable things that have happened throughout the show," he said, quite earnestly, "and I think one of the greatest things that I get to take away is the relationships that I've built, with Jared and [Executive Producer] Bob Singer and Eric Kripke and [writer and current showrunner] Jeremy Carver and Mischa Collins and Mark Sheppard. It's such a remarkable group of people and it's not like I'm dying to get away from it, which I think is one of the reasons it continues to go and it continues to be strong because we all really enjoy working on the show and we all really enjoy each other's company. Sure, it's a dysfunctional family, but without friction you wouldn't have fire."

However rough the friction might be, the fire of Supernatural is undeniable, and after 200 episodes, it doesn't look like that flame is anywhere near getting doused. The 200th episode of Supernatural airs tonight, Tuesday November 11th, at 9/8c on The CW.

Photo Credits: The CW and Warner Bros.