"It was a bit of a guard change," Padalecki says, "But it wasn't abrupt. She's been a big part of the show for many, many years. On that note, the show had to change a little bit. Eric's already said that he had a 5-year arc for the show, so now that's ended, we've had to change the actual show a bit."
"I feel like the show's totally different, just in the way that certain scripts are written," Ackles says.
Ackles, who recently directed his first episode, has a good grasp on the changes occurring behind the camera as well. "Eric controlled the size of the script. How big it was, how many characters were written, how many different locations there were, and he was able to really dial it back and make it a doable show within our budget and the time frame that we were filming," he says.
"I do know that from a production standpoint this year it's increasingly more difficult to film because the shows are so big," he continues. "We need an extra two days of work an extra million dollars of production money just to get it all in."
Padalecki grins. "So we fired Misha [Collins]!" he jokes.
Ackles makes it clear that he's confident in Gamble's leadership. "I just think Sera's kind of finding her legs a little bit," he says. "I don't think [the fans] will notice a difference."
We're pretty sure one change won't escape our attention: "I'm naked a lot more," Padalecki says.
