Season Four begins September 4th 2008

Episode 4.01 "Lazarus Rising"

General Spoilers

Traci Dinwiddie has been cast in a guest role in the upcoming season four premiere of Supernatural, according to TV Guide.

The 35-year-old will play Pamela Barnes, a "kick ass hot-looking in a Gina Gershon kind of way" psychic who helps Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) track down brother Dean (Jensen Ackles).

Dinwiddie's previous TV credits include One Tree Hill and Dawson's Creek. She has also starred in films Mr. Brooks and The Notebook.

The Supernatural season four opener 'Lazarus Rising' premieres on the CW network on September 4.

Source: Digital Spy

“The season opens with some bombshells!” teases creator Eric Kripke, who already jolted viewers when he sent Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) to Hell in May’s season finale. Season 4 opens four months later, when Dean wakes up with no memory of his torment. “What happened to Dean in Hell and to [younger brother] Sam [Jared Padelecki] when he had to be a hunter by himself will slowly come to light,” Kripke says. “It gives us a nice opportunity for an internal struggle for Dean and for the brothers to surprise each other.” Katie Cassidy (Ruby) and Lauren Cohan (Bela) are both gone, but Jim Beaver and Steven Williams are back as geezer demon fighters Bobby and Rufus. Get set for a revealing flashback to the Winchester parents’ teen years, an homage to 1930s monster flicks and a bloody Halloween show.
Source: TV Guide

Sexy Supernatural thief Bela (Lauren Cohan) has already been sent to hell — unlike Dean, she won’t be released — and now the show’s creator Eric Kripke tells TV Guide it’s bye bye to sexy demon Ruby (Katie Cassidy) as well.

“She’s great, but this was unfortunately a financial decision — purely budgetary, because creatively she was terrific," Kripke said. "I have nothing but great affection for Katie, and she was great for the show. It was a very difficult business decision about the realities we are in." Though the budget’s the same as last year, the show films in Canada and is suffering from a lousy exchange rate.

There will be female characters, Kripke promises. But expect more of the love ‘em, leave ‘em or kill ‘em variety. “We have a plan that’s as exciting as any we’ve ever had of how to thread new characters in some unexpected ways,” he said, adding that the season opener will have a couple of “bombshells that will set the show off in a new direction.” Just don’t mess too much with those Winchester boys! — Ileane Rudolph
Source: TVGuide

06/14 - Eric Kirpe reveals: What happens to Dean in hell and how Dean gets out become primary concerns of Season 4. [...] Dean spends a lot more time in hell than anyone's probably thinking. Dean could spend - in human time - six months, maybe more. In hell time, who knows how many years or decades that might be. I won't tell you how he gets out, but he will emerge to a different landscape. A lot has changed since he's been away, and he has to readjust to his loved ones after being gone for so long. [...] It takes hundreds of years to be burned away into a demon. Dean won't be a demon, but there will be an ongoing mystery. When he gets out of hell, he'll have little recollection of what happened to him down there. That's one of the mysteries of the season. [...] Ruby will be back, and we're introducing a new supernatural species. We intend to bring back Steve Williams, the old embittered hermit hunter Rufus. [... Dean's hellish sojourn] will affect [the relationship between the brothers] massively. We'll slowly unfold Dean remembering what happened in hell, and that will drastically affect their relationship. Dean is basically a POW coming home from the worst hellhole - literally - ever. How do you reconnect with your life when you've been through something that horrific? That becomes one of his issues. But don't worry, he's still the same smart ass he always was. [...] We presented [Sam] as immune to [demon Lilith's] powers. We have some twists and turns in store with that. Sam promised Dean right before Dean died that he wasn't going to pursue any of his powers in terms of discovering his potential. Upon Dean's return, Sam tells him "I promised I wouldn't head down that road because you made me promise," but we begin to wonder if indeed that is the truth. For whatever it's worth, the writers have never been this excited about a season. We have some really exciting plot twists. Source: TV Guide Online


06/12 - Supernatural is going to be dealing with a lot of specifically religious symbolism this season, with a particular eye toward the devil, hell, god, etc.
Source: Kristin on E!Online

05/08 - Lauren will not be coming back next year. [... In Season 4,] we're gonna spend a little less time talking about giant movements and war and more time talking about the brothers' relationship and how they react to that war. I think we sort of have a new species of supernatural being that we'll be introducing in season four that will take people by surprise. [...] In terms of Mary, we're definitely delving into all of that. I think my goal is to answer those questions sooner than people are expecting us to. I think in the first half of season four we'll actually answer a lot of those questions. [...] We have the Croatoan virus on our board of ongoing mythology, and it will return in some form or another that we're working on.
Source: Kristin on E!Online