You may have heard about a certain television series called Supernatural. Whether your friends talk about it, word on the street, the news, or seeing people walking around wearing the merchandise. There is no argument that the show has a lot of people hooked. It is a popular television series on the CW channel, classified as a horror, that just keeps on growing in fans, and in seasons.

Ever since the show started off with its pilot episode on September 13, 2005, the show has blossomed and grown, and with it, a new community was developed.

In the beginning, Supernatural started out as a new television series about two brothers named Sam and Dean Winchester, played by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. Their father had gone missing on a hunting trip he had been on for a few days. However, this is no ordinary hunting trip. Sam and Dean’s mom passed away when they were young, and ever since then they have been on the road with their father, John Winchester, hunting monsters to keep people safe after a supernatural encounter that lead to the death of their mother, Mary Winchester. Learning tips and tricks along the way from their father, Sam and Dean picked up on hunting fairly well, joining in what they call “The Family Business”. Dean, the oldest of the two Winchesters, stuck with the family business with his dad the whole time. But Sammy, on the other hand, didn’t want to live that kind of life, he wanted to have a normal life. So he pursued law school and got himself a girlfriend and all was good for a while. That is until his older brother Dean broke into his house one night and announced that their father had gone missing on a hunting trip. Sam went with, and due to certain events he stayed and rejoined the business hunting on the road with Dean, that is when the show really started.

In the next oncoming seasons, the viewers of the show came across many monsters and creatures in folklore. What a lot of fans like about this at that the monsters they use on the show have actual stories of folklore behind them from various cultures and religions, bringing a little bit of everything to the table. Some of the creatures are more well known like vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, and angels. While others are ones that  most people haven’t even heard of like the djinn, crocatta, rawhead, buruburu, and the okami. But an interesting thing the show adds is throughout the episode you get to see the Winchester brothers do an investigation on these monsters, you get to see first of all, why they are hunting it, which is usually due to the monster killing people and causing disturbance with the public. And you get to see Sam and Dean do their research, dress up in various get-ups occasionally to interview people, and to find out how to get rid of the rogue monster. The fans learn a lot on classifying monsters, how to kill the monsters, the folklore behind them, and their origins. Once they get the hang of what the Winchesters do it is fun for the fans to guess along with the show about the monsters in the episodes. Which is one of the aspects that helped to bring a community together from their common knowledge given to them from the show.

But folklore and information regarding monsters isn’t the only thing the show teaches its fans. “I think Sam and Dean have shown me how much family really means, and that it’s important to trust those you love even when it seems like you can’t” Oliver, a fan from Venezuela tells me, he also added “I’ve also learned, specifically from Bobby, that your family doesn’t have to mean those directly related to you. Family is just those who love and support you through everything you do” Elizabeth Masloski, a fan from Blaine High School in Minnesota answered “Bobby has taught me that family don’t end in blood. Salt and burn, along with teaching me how to kill a bunch of creatures, I mean, I don’t know what I’m doing with that information, but you never know.”

However, with a show about hunting monsters, the writers have to keep it interesting and mix it up a little bit apart from the usual on the road hunting plot. So with that comes the threat of higher forces of darkness and evil. In one of the seasons, the brothers were put up against Satan himself, and they tried to find a way to get him back to where he belongs. There are other problems and forces the brothers come across throughout the seasons that take their toll on them, and virtually, everyone in the supernatural universe.

Now Supernatural isn’t just a show about the dark and scary things, it has its comical moments as well as its serious ones. There are several episodes that take the viewers by surprise that are weird and unheard of for a television series to do. These episodes have become fan-favorites. One of the more common fan-favorite episodes is “Changing Channels” where Sam and dean are put into a tv universe by a tricky little creature, and they have to play the parts of other characters in shows, they do a parody tv version of Grey’s Anatomy, CSI, Back to the Future, and a Japanese game show. These episodes when explained seem far fetched and ridiculous, however, if one were to watch the show in order all the way through it would make sense at the time.

With any popular television series of course comes a fan base. The Supernatural Fandom is one of the most well-known fandoms, which adds to the reason why people make a big fuss about the show. The Supernatural Fandom is known to have “a gif for everything” (a gif is a picture that moves that is usually taken from short clips of a movie or tv show.) which the fans have proven to this day is actually true. So it’s not uncommon for the fans of the show to “hijack” posts from people on any of the social media websites, or to have a conversation with a fan and them to bring up some quote from the show or to explain how it relates to or has happened before on the show.

The nickname for the fans of Supernatural is “hunters” due to the fact the main idea in the show is hunting monsters. The fandom is considered in the top ten list of the best fandoms out there. It is also rated higher for one of the crazier fandoms. Another name the fandom has been  the “Supernatural Family” or the SPN family for short. The reason they are considered one of the best fandoms to join is because of the welcoming community. Meghan Michel, a fan from Arizona told me “Everyone I’ve ever encountered has been so kind and friendly and welcomed me in so readily.” And her words are true in the eyes of another fan named Oliver from Venezuela that I interviewed through the Supernatural community online when asked the same question Oliver replied with “They’re family. We’re not simple fans with this show in common, we have a profound bond. And I believe what we have been Pure and unique”. Alex Hoppe, a fan from Blaine High School says, “Everyone is literally everyone’s friend” when asked what her favorite part of the community is. The Supernatural fans care about each other on a different level than most fandoms the fans say and that is what makes the experience so special.

Some advice from fans to new viewers is not to get way too attached to the characters, you will eventually understand why too. And not to skip any episodes or seasons due to crucial information that could be foreshadowing for future episodes or seasons, also to give it a shot, and at least watch until the end of season 5. As the season, five is a favored season for many fans. They also encourage people to get in the community even if they have just started the show and to share theories, art, stories, and writing with them.

However, it is not only the fans that make this experience special. The actors contribute a lot more to the community aside from just acting in the show. Many of the actors attend conventions to meet, take pictures with, and to sign autographs for their fans. This is not something the actors are required to do, but they chose to because how much they care about their supporters. The actors also make big differences outside of just the fan community. Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester) made a series of charity campaigns for people with depression after he opened up to the public about his own struggle with depression. They are titled “Always Keep Fighting” or just AKF for short. The proceeds went to various charities that helped people with fighting their depression. There are three shirts in this campaign series currently. This campaign was a huge success, and with that Jared has helped his fans by giving them hope and inspiration through their dark times,  when part three of the campaign came out there were a lot of people, fans or not, posting about how the campaign gave them hope and how to this day, affects many other people they pass by on the street while they wear the shirt.

But Jared isn’t the only one who brought campaigns to the table. Many other stars from the show have contributed in their own ways as well, Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) with his “SPN Family” and a contribution to part two of the “Always Keep Fighting” campaign, Osric Chau (Kevin Tran) with “Advanced Placement” and “Proud to be Unique” campaigns, Jim Beaver (Bobby Singer) with “Family Don’t End in Blood“, Mark Sheppard (Crowley) with “Hello Boys” and “Diabetes. no“, Felicia Day (Charlie Bradbury) with her “Embrace Your Weird” campaign. It is no doubt that they all care and are happy to support good causes.

Misha Collins, the actor who plays as Castiel on the show has made a huge difference. He made differences on a global scale. Misha had a campaign called “Get Kind” which became quite popular. However, the larger contributions he made were by making two organizations called Random Acts and GISHWHES. Misha founded the organization Random Acts to encourage people around the world to do good things for their community. “We’re going to conquer the world. One random act of kindness at a time.” Misha explained. The other organization he founded is called GISHWHES. It is an acronym for The Greatest Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. This is a one-week event that Misha started that encourages people to go out and do some wacky, or kind things to embrace themselves and to have a little fun. In this event, people from all over the world pay to sign up and let their wacky week of fun begin. How it works is that there are teams people get put onto, of you don’t have a team you set up with friends near you, you will get put on one with people perhaps from all over the world. The objective is to get as many things as you possibly can on a list that Misha, along with some help from other celebrities makeup, each action on the list gets you points that are added to your team’s score. The fans either take pictures or videos to authenticate their completion of one of the challenges. The challenges can range anywhere from “Have a tea party with a special needs child or pediatric cancer patient dressed as a character from ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ ” or as bizarre as “Get a picture of a storm trooper cleaning a pool next to a sunbather enjoying a cocktail.” anything and everything goes for this event. Some tasks include skills such as photography, creativity, artistic talents, and much more. Anyone can participate in this event, there are even celebrities that choose to play along with Misha’s wonderful idea. Some play for fun and some play to win. Every year Misha takes his winning GISHWHES team to a fun destination where they get to spend time with him and do some cool things. Some of the previous destinations were Pirate ships in Croatia, Haunted Scottish Castle in Scotland, a romantic dinner in Rome, a water plane trip, and the latest one, Costa Rica.

So it is no surprise when the fans of the show or fans of the actors explain how much the actors have taught them and how much they admire the actors because of it. Especially when the actors are so inspirational with what they do and say. Jensen Ackles gives his fans advice by saying “What’s worth living for? Life’s self is worth living for. If you aren’t living the life you want, you fight for that life!” or Misha’s memorable quote “I want to live in the world where ‘normal’ is an insult.” along with other quotes as well form the actors, either way they still have a huge effect on their fans. “Misha has taught me just to be yourself and it doesn’t matter what others think of you, Osric has taught me that too, because if they cant handle you, they’re not worth your time. Jared taught me to Always keep fighting no matter what the battle is. Jensen taught me that it is alright to be shy, Felicia taught me to embrace who you are, and Mark Sheppard taught me “It’s not the failure that kills you, it’s the hope” which is true.” Elizabeth Masloski explains. Alex Hoppe, says the actors taught her “That you keep pushing forward and that your true friends are the ones that stand by you.” A fan named Anna from Colorado told me “Just seeing how much they care not only for their cast members but also for the community, the fandom, around them has made me feel much more a part of something that is bigger than me. Also, the passions they have for a specific cause, like Jared with AKF, has made me more aware of issues around me that I can help try to solve.” Meghan Michel contributed to the topic by adding “I found the show when I was in a pretty dark place in life and I just fell in love with it. Because I feel like, take away the demons and ghouls, and other supernatural creatures and the story and characters are so relatable it really helped me realize like ‘okay yeah, it feels like the worlds ending for me right now but I’ll get past it’ also finding more about the actors in the show and how much they cared and how they struggled with so many similar things. Jared with his depression and AKF campaign, Misha’s charity and how he was actually homeless and went through so much during his childhood. It just gave me hope things get better. I’ve also had the chance to me so many amazing friends because of the common interest in the show.”

Fans show admiration and dedication to the show by writing “The Family Business” on their arms on September 13th, the day the pilot was aired. Or wearing merchandise and purchasing items for the actors campaigns and events they put on, getting the Supernatural Amino app to talk to fans around the world about theories, blogs, polls, share art, writing, and even things not Supernatural related.

They do many other things too such as having a common dislike for Tuesdays and celebrating that its finally Wednesday, because of the episode “Mystery Spot” and some fans even go so far as to get supernaturally inspired tattoos possibly featuring one of the show’s most well-known symbols, the anti-possession symbol, to keep them safe. one thing that fans have to face is being accused of satanic worshiping due to these symbols they may wear on their clothing that are used in the show, like pentagrams, anti-possession symbols, devils trap, and various others. These symbols, are not considered satanic to the fans, the pentagram is actually a positive symbol used in Christianity, a few other religions, and in olden times as a protection against evil. The other symbols in the show have good meanings behind them too, the anti-possession symbol protects the wearer from possession, which is a good thing.

A favorite thing for fans to do, if they have the time and money, is to attend a Supernatural convention. Supernatural conventions are conventions dedicated solely to the show Supernatural. At these conventions, fans have the opportunity to visit panels of the actors in town on the day or days they go. Panels are dedicated to a specific actor or actors in which the actors take questions from fans in the audience, talk about some of their experiences, tell stories, and entertain the crowd in various ways. The cons are usually three days long with more and more actors stopping in as the weekend days progress. Fans have the opportunity to visit a vendors room to purchase some merchandise, or to purchase tickets to photo ops with the actors, autographs, meet and greet tickets, and special events happening that day. Depending on the day you go they have schedules and fun events laid out for the fans. There is a costume contest, an auction, Karaoke with the actors, a concert from a band one of the actors from the show created, and even sometimes a haunted house tour for fans to go crazy with. Elizabeth Masloski who attended a convention with me said “I whipped out the 50 bucks like my life depended on it when we found out there was still tickets for pictures with Sebastien” Meghan Michel who went to a Supernatural con in Las Vegas said “All the actors we met were so kind and you could really tell they cared about the fans.” The actors genuinely care about their fans and it is such an amazing and life changing experience to meet an idol or your favorite actors.

But with Supernatural’s 11th season vastly approaching, premiering on October 7th, 2015, fans are more excited than ever. This season is focused on a force called The Darkness. The Darkness is a pre-biblical force that has next to nothing written on it or about it. Which makes the fans wonder how the Winchesters will conquer this one. There are also rising questions in the air such as whether or not this season will bring fourth a god in the season, what exactly is the darkness, and if Lucifer and Gabriel will be returning to this season, along with some other questions fans want answers to with this oncoming season. Many fans are hoping that this season will bring back the scare that the earlier seasons had and are hoping that their favorite characters will survive this season.

All in all the supernatural fandom is an interesting and unique fandom that is very welcoming and excitable. The actors and fans genuinely care for each other and it is a fandom worth joining should you be interested in the genre and topics. The community is so cool and filled with amazing people who are really friendly and make good friends that share a common interest. And all of this is so precious only because of what happened back on September 13th, 2005 when the pilot was aired.

Supernatural, join the hunt!

A special thanks to Anna, Oliver, Meghan Michel, Elizabeth Masloski, and Alex Hoppe for letting me interview them!