I do think covid was responible for Misha not being in the finale. I mean if it had to do with no-homo, why wouldnt Eileen be in the finale? She also seemed to be COVID-related cut. (Not that I think they would have delived on destiel if Misha were there lol)
They had 100 maskless people on a bridge.
A bunch of kids on set (at least 6 different kids).
Jim Beaver, whose pushing 80.
Random Vampire Lady from S1.
Big crowds at the pie festival.
But NO Misha? No Shoshannah? The two Not-Dead people who mean the most to Dean and Sam?
At the time of filming, Canada WAS allowing entertainment jobs to enter Canada with little to no quarantine (like the NHL). SPN already paid Misha for the season, they could use him as much as they wanted.
Even IF they couldn’t get the actors for whatever reason (and there’s no reason good enough to exclude their third lead), there was SO MUCH they could have done to include Cas & Eileen that they chose not to do. They could have clearly show photographs of Eileen in Sam's house, so we know for sure he married her. Instead of Faceless Blurry Wife. In Heaven, they could have had a moment where we hear the angel wing noise, a recycled "Hello, Dean" from Cas, and Dean turning around, grinning. Like that would have been enough to make folks...more content. Make it feel less like a slap to the face.
But they chose not to do that. It’s especially egregious to exclude Misha/Cas after what happened in 15x18. Cas confessed gay-romantic sounding love for Dean to Dean, promptly dies, and the confession is never mentioned/dealt with AND Misha/Cas are excluded from the finale, from Dean's Heaven? That looks really bad. You can see what that looks like, see what the implications are. Intentional or not. It is not a good look.
Neither is excluding Sam’s canon girlfriend, who happens to be deaf. Are we supposed to assume she wasn’t good enough for Sam, they didn’t want to saddle Sam with a disabled wife?
Why did the gay angel and the disabled girlfriend get cut out of the finale? Why did they CHOOSE to do that, even though it could be easily rectified with a picture and a voice over? Why can’t Cas be in Dean’s Heaven, why don’t they even want to HINT at that possibility?
It’s not JUST a No Homo ending, although that’s a huge part of it. It’s also a Bros Only ending. Can’t even show Sam’s wife, or any kids he have that aren’t Dean substitutes. No life outside of Dean.
Covid isn’t the reason for completely excluding Cas (the Gay Angel) and Eileen (the Deaf Girlfriend). It’s their excuse, their criticism deflector, for doing what they wanted to do, for their own shitty choices.
