Supernatural star Jensen Ackles has said that the show's coronavirus-enforced shutdown has become an "opportunity to refocus" ahead of the highly-anticipated finale.

The long-running fantasy series is currently filming its final season after 15 years on the air, with Ackles and Jared Padalecki having starred in the show for the entirety of its run.

Eighteen of the season's 20 episodes had been shot and work was just beginning on the two-part series finale as the COVID-19 pandemic halted production in Vancouver.

"Obviously it's a horribly unfortunate situation we're in, but the silver lining is that it gives us an opportunity to recharge," Ackles told Entertainment Weekly.

"We had just finished episode 18, we shot one day of episode 19, and I was reading these two monster scripts thinking, 'It's like we're at the end of a marathon and they want us to sprint for the last two miles.'

"I feel like this almost gives us an opportunity to refocus and go into the last two episodes and hit them with everything we got."

The show has gone on hiatus in the US following the broadcast of the 13th episode of the season last month.