Jensen Ackles Gives Harrowing Update On Jared Padalecki’s Recovery

Jensen Ackles gave an update on his former Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki and why the latter was attending a fan event.

By Doug Norrie | Published

jensen ackles jared padalecki

Over the weekend, Jensen Ackles made an appearance at a Supernatural fan event. And while folks were treated to the likes of Dean Winchester, the other half of the on-screen brother pair was noticeably not in attendance. Apparently, Jared Padalecki who played Sam Winchester in the series had been involved in a very bad car accident, one that could have gone far worse if not for some luck involved. Jensen Ackles gave some updates on his friend and former television sibling to the crowd, letting on that Padalecki might even be lucky to be alive after what went down. 

During some comments to the Supernatural fans out there, Jensen Ackles got into why Jared Padalecki wasn’t in attendance, something that was known ahead of time though the reason hadn’t yet been made clear. Ackles gave an update along these lines, letting on that it was because of the car accident that the co-star wasn’t going to be there. In part, Ackles said, “I spoke to him yesterday and he’s sad he can’t be here. He was in a very bad car accident. He wasn’t driving. He was in the passenger seat, and he’s lucky to be alive. That airbag packs a punch…But he is doing OK, and he’s moving around.” 

While Jensen Ackles didn’t expand on how close to actual death Jared Padalecki actually came, it sounds like the car accident was no joke. And it was enough to put him out of commission for this event at least. Padalecki, for his part, had sent out a Tweet last Thursday that gave the heads-up to the New York City contingent of the Supernatural fanbase that he wasn’t going to make it to the event. Though in his message he didn’t let on anything close to what Jensen Ackles said in his remarks. If anything there was an air of levity around Padalecki’s comments saying he wasn’t coming. 

Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki starred for 15 seasons together on Supernatural setting the record for the longest-running live-action fantasy series ever. It was quite the run for the show on The CW, going 327 episodes in all and finally wrapping up its story in the finale on November 19, 2020. The show told the story of the Winchester brothers and their fight against things that go bump in the night. And the series continued to raise the stars along the way, putting these two at the center of the fight between basically Heaven and Hell. It was a fascinating journey. 

Jensen Ackles is actually continuing with the franchise as well, creating and producing a Supernatural prequel series, The Winchesters. It’s set to tell the story of Sam and Dean’s parents, John and Mary. Ackles won’t appear on screen at all (at least to start) but will act as the voice of the narrator for the show. It is currently still in pre-production, though they did just recently cast the series leads. 

And next up for the actor will be when he appears in Amazon’s third season of The Boys. Jensen Ackles will be playing Soldier Boy, one of the Supes with questionable moral and ethical codes. His character is a Captain America rip-off though there isn’t likely to be a ton of overlap with that character’s sense of virtue. It could get pretty dark along those lines.