The CW has released the first trailer for the upcoming eighth season of its hit mythological investigations serial.
Supernatural‘s last season saw the destruction of a terrible force of creatures brought out from the depth of purgatory, which, in the show’s mythology, is where God locked up all the creatures too terrible to let roam the earth. It was the Winchester brothers’ greatest challenge to date, and it cost them much, including their mentor and friend, Bobby – though with the frequency that people die and return to life in this show, I won’t be surprised if we see him again.
In the new season, Dean has been trapped in purgatory for a year, which is typical of the show, and will cause some tension when he doesn’t want to talk about what happened to him while he was there, prompting Sam to become suspicious.
As you may recall, this pattern has been repeating itself since season 5. The main arc will be the attempt to close the gates of hell, an act which will remove all the demons and other monsters from the Earth forever. Sounds like a series ending plot-line to me. Of course, the series was supposed to end a couple seasons ago, and came back due to sheer popularity, despite the storyline getting less and less believable every season.
I think it’s interesting that the show has chosen to rely so much on Christian mythology, even when it’s been made clear that all other world mythologies are also true and present. I would have liked to have seen the brothers mix it up more with some gods and demons from other major religions and historical mythologies, the way they do in the companion novels. A season of scuffles with creatures from Greek mythology would be excellent.
From the trailer, however, it looks like we’re just getting Christianity again, which seems like a step backward from the stakes presented in the previous season.
Supernatural is moving to Wednesday nights, and so the new season will premiere on October 3rd, 2012 on The CW.
