Supernatural, one of the most popular skiffy shows on TV, has long been criticized for a certain level of misogyny in the way that female characters are presented. We learned in breaking news today that in an effort to remedy this perception, the network has hired Joss Whedon as an executive producer. Whedon, who has worked on properties ranging from Roseanne to Toy Story, was specifically brought on board to create strong female characters for show. Supernatural is often criticized for because it has a nearly all-male cast.

A network spokesman for the show, who was not willing to go on record with his name, explained, "Joss did excellent work with Dollhouse, and we'd like to bring some of that magic to Supernatural. We believe that, given free rein, he will be an excellent influence on Supernatural's storyline. We confess that Supernatural has not treated women very well, and since we've killed off all female characters that had any fan appeal, we need some new ones. Joss is very good at creating strong chicks. We look forward to seeing what he comes up with for Supernatural Season Six."

An exclusive inside source has also advised us that, "Joss Whedon was instrumental in getting Eliza Dushku on board as Sam and Dean's hunter sister, Ashleigh Winchester. We believe that she will appear in twenty-one episodes. She is not contracted for the last episode of the season, for reasons that will become obvious after episode twenty-one airs. However, this means she will be in  more episodes than Sam. Due to the actor's desire to pursue other opportunities, Sam will only appear in six episodes, plus the occasional video phone appearance. We don't believe he will be missed much, as Eliza has excellent chemistry with Dean."

The same source also noted, "We believe fans, particularly the female fans, will appreciate Eliza's looks. We're using a CGI filter to soften her up a bit and add a few curves, so that she will appeal to men more. Eliza's a great actor, but she's handicapped by lack of male appeal. Additionally, since we have two tough men on the show we believe that, as a contrast, Ashleigh should be softer and more feminine. It's a new type of role for Eliza, and she squee'd with delight at a chance to show off her girly side."

Additionally, the show's sponsors wanted a female Winchester sister on the cast in hopes that fans, who are noted for writing slash (stories featuring male/male romance), will find her a hetero-normative alternative. One of the showrunners advised us, "Our sponsors are getting wary that mainstream America, particularly the teabagger element of mainstream America, will learn about the Sam/Dean fanfictions. It doesn't help that we've drawn attention to the fanfictions by explicitly referring to them in episodes of the show. Our hope is to protect the fans, and our financial interests, by giving the fans a suitable alternative character to write fanfictions about. Male/female incest is much more acceptable to our advertisers and the fundamentalist Christian critics than male/male incest, and we feel there will be much less chance of a large scale protests targeting the show and its fans if we can steer the fandom towards Ashleigh/Dean or Ashleigh/Sam stories."

For the same reason, the show will be featuring Castiel, the show's woobie of a fallen angel, in a much less prominent role. According to the showrunner we interviewed, "Fanfictions featuring Castiel in any sort of a romantic context are blasphemous. Since we are afraid of angering the religious wingnuts, we would like to ask the fans to please stop doing that. If they don't, we'll have to remove the character from the show entirely. We believe that fans will stop writing stories about him if they don't see him on a regular basis. It's about respect, people. We're serious about this threat, and because of the real chance we may need to carry through, Castiel's role next season is not pivotal."

However, we have heard some rumors to the effect that Castiel has some as-yet undiscovered talents. (Think: Disco.) Also, Castiel will have at least one nude scene, but he will be filmed at a great, great distance.

Another showrunner also let us know that, "We have discussed cloning the Winchester brothers in the past, but that idea was discarded because it sucked. However, Joss has suggested that we could achieve a similar effect using androids, and since he has experience writing stories featuring robots, we gave it the greenlight. All three Winchester siblings, Castiel, and Bobby will have robotic doubles. The robots were somewhat expensive to create (though Bobby's was less so, as it doesn't need to walk) but we feel the long term savings will be worth it. Aside from their on-screen roles as robots, they are good enough doubles for the actors that we can use them to negotiate the actors' salaries downward. If the actors do not like the contracts we are offering them, the robots can take their place, and they know it."

We asked if the inevitable Ashleigh/Ashleigh femslash that would result from having a robotic Ashleigh Winchester would be more or less offensive than Sam/Dean slash. The showrunner responded, "I'd like to read those stories ..." and he paused for a long moment before adding, "... before I make a determination."

Firefox News also received, via an unnamed source, some details about some episodes for next season.