Jensen Ackles Making A Supernatural Prequel Series, Jared Padalecki Is Gutted

Jensen Ackles is developing a Supernatural prequel and will narrate the show. But Jared Padalecki had no idea about it and is upset

By Doug Norrie | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

jensen ackles

Jensen Ackles is returning to the world of Supernatural though not everyone is happy about it. The actor and star of the show has announced that he is developing a prequel to the popular series along with his wife Daneel. Deadline has it that the new show, The Winchesters will tell the story of John and Mary, the parents of Sam and Dean, and how the formers’ love set the stage for the events of the hit series. Jensen Ackles will act as narrator of the show and Daneel will star as the younger version of Mary. 

But not all Supernatural alums appear happy with this announcement. Series co-star Jared Padalecki apparently didn’t know anything about the show’s development and heard about it the same way most fans did. There was some social media back and forth when the news first broke that Jensen Ackles was creating a spin-off prequel series and Padalecki didn’t mix words when it came to his feelings about not being involved. Here’s what he said on Twitter. 

Now, it’s not like Jensen Ackles is in any way obligated to bring all former Supernatural folks back into a new series, though there are definitely others involved as well. Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson is going to act as showrunner and head writer. But it could strike one as odd that Padalecki, who co-starred on the series alongside Ackles for all those years, had no clue it was in development at all. And considering it spins directly off the original story, about the two’s parents on the program, one would have thought the topic would have come up at some point. 

Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki co-starred on Supernatural for 15 seasons, marking it as the longest-running fantasy television series in history. The program finally signed off in November of last year, with a finale that left more than few people disappointed though. Series creator Eric Kripke let on that the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing regulations greatly impacted the original vision for the ending of the show. That being said, it remains one of the most successful programs ever in terms of longevity and a clear win for The CW which appears incentivized to capitalize on the long-running story. 

This new story in The Winchesters apparently will focus on John and Mary, Sam and Dean’s parents whose love and relationship does become somewhat central to the overall plot of Supernatural. Their background sets the two brothers on their oddity-hunting path. And Mary, played by Samantha Smith, does become more of a feature character in later seasons. This new story will presumably focus more on her time as a hunter as well. 

supernatural jensen ackles

While Jensen Ackles is hard at work on a Supernatural prequel, it’s not like Jared Padalecki is sitting around twiddling his thumbs. The latter is starring on his own program right now, Walker, a reboot of the Chuck Norris-led series from the early 90s. The actor has clearly moved on to different projects. But there’s a sense that when you work with someone on a specific program for so long, when another series comes in that world, you’d at least hear about it before social media gave you the heads up.