Supernatural Almost Had a Free Rein for its Scooby-Doo Crossover But WB Had 1 Strict Restriction: ‘Certain things Warner Bros. doesn’t want’

You probably might have thought that if CW’s beloved show Supernatural would go on to have a crossover with another world, it would most likely be The Vampire Diaries. On the other hand, Supernatural fans always expected the unexpected but even then, the show didn’t fail to surprise us throughout its fifteen seasons. Thus, when the thirteenth season rolled in, we did NOT expect Sam, Dean, and Castiel would turn 2D and step into the universe of Scooby-Doo.

As Team Free Will magically got zapped into the animated world of crime-solving detectives, we viewers went on a journey of our own. A journey where two of our favorite universes collided in the best way possible. Since Warner Bros. owned both the titles, the crossover was easily greenlit, but they did have one rule regarding it all.

The One Rule Warner Bros. Had for Supernatural’s ‘Scoobynatural’

Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins’ characters join forces with the Scooby gang on one of the latter group’s missions, only to realize that the thing they are after isn’t just a liar in a mask – it’s a very real, very scary, vengeful spirit.

This sends the detectives into a spiral, as Velma hilariously notes, “I thought I was blind without my glasses, but I was just blind!.” Honestly, girl? Same. This was just one of the many, many hilarious moments from the show and it was all made possible thanks to WB letting the reins loose and allowing Supernatural to do their own thing.

However, there was one important rule the show had to follow – no scenes that would drastically affect Scooby-Doo’s legacy. Executive producer Andrew Dabb told Variety,

What we wanted to make clear was our guys are in an episode of ‘Supernatural’ and those guys are in an episode of ‘Scooby Doo.’ That doesn’t mean there aren’t crossovers and revelations and things like that, but there were certain things, obviously, that Warner Bros. doesn’t want — like Thelma beheading a vampire.

Clearly, Supernatural followed through and the result was an unforgettable episode that fans still revisit every now and then. After all, who doesn’t want to see Dean crushing over Daphne? We know, we do!

The Lead Actors Talk about the Crossover

If you know Padalecki and Ackles, you know they loved their jobs and they enjoyed filming this episode in particular. Come on, how often do you get the chance to work with history’s best animated detectives?

In an interview with Den of Geek, Padalecki stated that while he was obviously very excited about Scooby-Doo becoming a part of Supernatural’s world, he was more eager for the opposite.

In his own words,

I’m really excited for Scooby-Doo to be part of the Supernatural lore, but I’m more excited for the Supernatural lore to be a part of the Scooby-Doo canon. That’s cool for me, you know what I mean? That now there’s a footnote about Supernatural when people are talking about Scooby-Doo.

While talking to Variety, Ackles admitted that it was extremely fun recording the episode thanks to the “instant energy” shift they felt in the studio. Over-enunciating words and trying something so different was everything they could ask for.

There was an instant energy that was different than anything we had done before because the three of us had never sat in a recording studio together. Obviously we work together a lot, but we’d never been in that situation. And it’s animation, so you know you’ve got to go a little bigger. So over-enunciating words and singing life into words is certainly different than what we normally do.

On that note, check out this hilarious video of Ackles and Padalecki recording a moment from the episode:

From Dean successfully fitting a humongous cartoon sandwich in his mouth to Sam and Velma’s romance, everything was absolute perfection in ‘Scoobynatural.’ No wonder the episode has an IMDb rating of 9.5/10! Packed with meta-humor, cartoonish hijinks, and some surprisingly heartfelt moments, it’s a mash-up you never knew you needed.

Supernatural is available to watch on Netflix.