‘The Winchesters’: New Journey, Same ‘Supernatural’ Legacy

The CW’s ‘Supernatural’ prequel, ‘The Winchesters,’ is almost here. Here is how the show promises to uphold the ‘Supernatural” legacy.

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The Winchesters Supernatural Legacy

The long-awaited Supernatural prequel, The Winchesters, is set to premiere on October 11, 2022. The show has big shoes to fill since CW’s Supernatural ran for an iconic 15 seasons before ending. Here is how Jensen Ackles and the team promise to uphold the show’s legacy.

The Supernatural prequel, narrated by Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), follows the lives of John Winchester and Mary Campbell before they are married and have Sam and Dean follow in their footsteps. If you followed along the 15 seasons of Supernatural, you’ve seen our demon-fighting brother duo in all kinds of trouble, but now we get to see where it all started.

https://youtu.be/xwdL5ZFCi80

Entertainment Weekly spoke with Jensen Ackles, who plays Dean Winchester and is executive producer for The Winchesters, on how the prequel came about during lockdown 2020. It began with a Supernatural rewatch between Ackles and his wife Danneel Ackles, who also serves as executive producer of the show and appeared on Supernatural. The two watched the fandom’s favorite episodes and shared their thoughts via video. Jensen Ackles said, “That kick-started Danneel and I workshopping ideas and it also put us in the Supernatural world, then we asked: What would be a story that I would want to see outside of the show?” And the idea was born!

What Can We Expect From The Winchesters?

Of course, fans were skeptical. Jensen explained, “A lot of people are like, ‘Hang on, are you changing the lore? Is this like Back to the Future, where Dean and Sam are going to start to disappear in the picture?’ It’s not,” he said. “We obviously don’t want to change anything that was experienced on what we lovingly call the mothership.”

The show won’t disrupt any of the timeline, but it will elaborate on some pieces Supernatural explored and give new stories, as well. As we can see in the trailer, the Men of Letters are mentioned and monster hunting is still the norm.

Young John Winchester, Dean and Sam’s father, is being played by Drake Rodger. Mary Campbell, Dean and Sam’s mom, will be played by Meg Donnelly. Instead of following along the two brothers, the prequel will focus on John and Mary as they interact with other hunters.

How Will The Show Keep The Supernatural Legacy?

We know Supernatural started as mainly a duo gig, but its prequel will begin with a larger team of hunters. The Winchesters showrunner, Robbie Thompson, said, “A touch point for us was those early seasons of Supernatural. We will have a big bad for the season but we’re going to do some classic monsters of the week.”

It is no secret that the show’s legacy and fandom run deep. The connections between fans and actors are unmatched, which is why joining the Supernatural world holds so much weight amongst the new cast. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester) have shown immense support to the stars of the prequel.

Jensen highlighted to Entertainment Weekly his “pep talk” to the new stars.

“There was probably a small pep talk. This isn’t just coming on to a new thing, this is something that has 15 years of intense storytelling and you guys are a representative of this thing that we built, of the family.”

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He continued,

“And there’s a big population of people that are very protective of the story and of these characters and you are the new stewards of this and you need to understand the weight of that and you need to understand how important it is to treat this with care and respect.”

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It is evident the legacy is in good hands. The team admits to not wanting to recreate Supernatural, but instead, show a different side we haven’t seen before in the Supernatural world. They want to establish the lore we know and love in even spookier ways.

The first season of the show is set to have 13 episodes and premiere on The CW on October 11.

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FEATURED IMAGE VIA THE CW / CANVA