How did fanfiction writers take control of the Supernatural narrative?
When “Fan Fiction” aired and put the Winchester brothers into a high school musical based on their lives, it was more than a subtle nod to the fanbase. On screen, Dean and Sam laughed at fan theories and inside jokes, and fans felt seen off screen right away. All those years of heated discussion, especially around Dean and Castiel, echoed back into the show. While it seems like a moment for the fandom to celebrate, it also raises a bigger question about the relationship between fans and creators.
The 200th episode is repeatedly seen as a love letter to the fandom, but it exposed the can of worms that comes with creators acknowledging fanfiction. People involved with Supernatural have often distanced themselves from this side of the fandom. Jensen Ackles, who played Dean, said he “would rather not know about that.” Conversely, creator Eric Kripke said he read fanfiction and was proud that they “inspire people to express themselves.” This contradiction draws a line between those making the show and those watching it, raising the question: Who really owns the narrative?
Building outside the script
For many fans, the story never stayed on the screen. After Supernatural’s pilot episode, it found its way into forums and comment sections. Jayne Ferrin, 59, known as Destielisreal8904 on Reddit, is a perfect example of how fans get drawn in. She started through Facebook groups and quickly found herself in a hugely immersive world.
She said: “When I found fan groups for Supernatural, there were constant discussions about Destiel.
“That led me to fanfiction, and I loved how it expands the world and plays with ideas the show doesn’t.”
The idea of building on the story is the heart of these fan spaces. Fanfiction isn’t about overwriting the original text but gives fans the platform to show their own ideas outside of the original script. This is exactly what happened with ‘Destiel’. Although the show never made the relationship between Dean and Castiel official, fans used fanfiction to explore it.
Jayne says, “Destiel fanfiction fills in the blanks the show didn’t cover.”
To fans like Jayne, the relationship was chronically unresolved, and fanfiction became the way to finish that story.
Over the years, these ideas snowballed. Archive of Our Own (AO3) shows how big it’s become, with millions of stories and words tagged to specific themes and ideas. In the Supernatural fandom, there are over 300,000 works on A03, including ideas about the characters, like dealing with trauma, reappearing across thousands of stories. These ideas become what fans call ‘fanon’, an unofficial version of the story written and read by fans.
Cheryl Nkong, 20, who writes as @farcicalbeings_ on Wattpad, sees it as fans creating their own ideas rather than copying the show’s lore.
She said: “A lot of fanfiction comes from wanting to take characters out of their original world and imagine them differently, whether that’s everyday settings or moments behind the scenes.
“It’s less about copying the original story and more about expanding it.”
By giving fans freedom with characters, the line between creators and audiences blurs. While original writers shape the plot, fans create versions that often feel realer to them. On paper, those two worlds are supposed to be separate, but in Supernatural, they constantly overlap.
Is queerbaiting needed?
This overlap is where things get complicated. Many fans believe the creators were aware of fans’ thoughts online and actively used them to keep the audience hooked.
Jayne said: “It always felt like the writers were aware of how fans were seeing Dean and Castiel.
“They leaned into that, especially with the queerbaiting.”
Queerbaiting has followed Supernatural for years. The suggestion is writers noticed what fans were asking for, like in the Fan Fiction episode, but wouldn’t follow through. By having student director Marie tell Dean that ‘Destiel’ and ‘the subtext’ are a huge part of her play, writers showed they knew fans’ online thoughts but refused to make it real.
Episodes like ‘Fan Fiction’ sit in that uncomfortable middle ground. The show openly recognised its fandom’s wishes but didn’t fulfil them. This is the can of worms the creators opened. While they showed they were listening, refusing to canonise those ideas left fans like Jayne feeling unheard.
She added: “It felt like the writers were giving fans just enough to keep them engaged without fully committing.”
How fans save characters
Fan influence wasn’t solely romance, it extended to the life and death of characters. Castiel was originally supposed to appear for six episodes in Season 4, but fans embraced him, and his role grew until he was one of the lead characters.
Jayne said: “I think they would see what fans were saying, and it influenced them to keep bringing Cas back.
“She saw his repeated returns and exits as a sign that writers were listening.
“They constantly tried to kill him off, only for the fans to get upset, so they would bring him back.”
Jayne saw these moments as signs of a back-and-forth between creators and viewers. Even though creators had control of the narrative, the fans’ love for Castiel was impossible to ignore, showing that fandoms can be important enough to change a character’s trajectory.
That’s what makes influence difficult to figure out. Writers aren’t necessarily scrolling through A03 for story ideas, but they are in the same spaces as the fandom on social media, so they can see audience reactions in real time. Nkong sees similar patterns across other fandoms, not just Supernatural.
She said: “I do think creators are influenced by fan discussions to an extent. “I’ve noticed changes in shows that feel like they’re added for the audience rather than staying completely true to the original material.”
While these changes don’t change the plot of a show entirely, it shows fans that their ideas can make a difference. Jayne says, “Even if they weren’t reading fanfiction directly, they couldn’t avoid how fans were talking about the show online.”
Social media has essentially erased the boundary between fans and creators. With real-time reactions and shipping debates being impossible to avoid, creators don’t have to go looking for fan spaces. Despite that, there are still limits to fandom influence.
Nkong said: “Ultimately, original creators still have the most control over the story.
“But audiences can influence how that story develops, especially when certain ideas become really popular.”
Who owns the narrative?
That balance is where modern fandom exists. While the intellectual property belongs to the creators, the meaning attached to it increasingly belongs to the audience. For fans like Jayne, that is exactly why fanfiction matters, as it provides a space where the rules of television don’t apply.
She said: “People who don’t read fanfiction don’t always see the connection and chemistry between them the way fans do,” she says.
Back in “Fan Fiction”, Sam and Dean watched a drama club reinterpret their lives in ways they barely recognise. It’s exaggerated and ridiculous, but also strangely accurate. While the episode works as a comedy, it accidentally lands on something much bigger. Stories don’t stop once they are aired. They continue through the fans that keep them alive.