(Sergei Bachlakov / NBC)

In addition to battling Lucifer, it seems Supernatural‘s Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) have been busy helping Eric Kripke remain optimistic that his new Timeless TV show on NBC will not be cancelled. The time-travel drama series stars Abigail Spencer, Matt Lanter, Malcolm Barrett, Goran Visnjic, Paterson Joseph, Sakina Jaffrey, and Claudia Doumit.

Although the first season of Timeless hasn’t been exactly rocking the Nielsen ratings, and has not yet been either cancelled or renewed by NBC, Kripke and co-creator Shawn Ryan approached the Timeless season one finale with the choice to just tell the story they wanted to tell. From the sounds of it (and from past experience with Kripke’s work), he’s not focused on building in too much closure. Still, Ryan thinks the first season answers a lot of questions.

Here is more, from TV Line.

TVLINE | How much did not knowing whether the show was renewed or not impact the finale and how you chose to end it?

RYAN | It did not have a great impact. We had a story that we wanted to tell from the beginning. We’re moving forward optimistically. We think there will be a Season 2. I’ve been in a situation before on Last Resort, where it was clear as we were making Episodes 10 and 11 that the show wasn’t going to continue, and we chose at that point to write what was essentially a series finale for Episode 13 to give closure. I think there are a lot of reasons for optimism for a Season 2. We’ll find out in two or three months. We’ve always set out to tell this one-season story that then would provide a launching point for a Season 2, but that would answer a lot of things, and I think we did it. We didn’t have any conversations where we were pulling out ratings and trying to do the math. We’re just writers, and we told the best story we could. So we’ll let the chips fall where they may.

KRIPKE | When you write these things, you plan for success. You just sort of have to, and whatever happens happens. But you write it as if the show’s coming back, because I think doing it any other way, you’re compromising the story you set out to tell.

TVLINE | Eric, you’ve been in this boat before with Supernatural, where it was a bubble show, and now it’s pretty much guaranteed that it will go on past any other show ever.

KRIPKE | Yeah, long after I’m dead…

TVLINE | Long after everything is gone, it’ll still be around.

KRIPKE | Right. Exactly. There’ll be no more cities. There’ll be burnt-out cities and burning, flaming oceans, and Supernatural will still be on the air.

TVLINE | Does that give you a sense of optimism, though, having been with a show before that used to be a bubble show and now is pretty much a guarantee to be renewed every year?

KRIPKE | In a way, yeah. What I think my experience with Supernatural gives me is stamina and perspective when it comes to something like Timeless. I don’t panic about this stuff or even really worry about it at all. Certain things are outside of my control.

Every time we finished a season of Supernatural, and we didn’t know we were coming back, we never pulled our punches. We always ended on the craziest possible cliffhanger we could. We knew that had we been cancelled at that point, the fans would’ve gone crazy because our heroes are either smashed up by a semi truck one year, or Dean’s in Hell another year. But you just go for it. My philosophy — and I know it’s Shawn’s, too — is if you’re in the General Lee, and you’re racing towards that smashed-up bridge, you don’t pump the brakes. You put the pedal to the metal.

Supernatural, which Kripke created, received an early season 13 renewal from The CW, back in January. On the other hand, NBC cancelled his series, Revolution, after just two seasons in 2014. Similarly, ABC cancelled Ryan’s Last Resort, after one season of 13 episodes in 2013.

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What do you think? Have you been watching this new series? Will Timeless be cancelled or renewed for season two on NBC?