See The Two Hunters Cast In Jensen Ackles’ Supernatural Prequel Series

Check out the two new hunters that Jensen Ackles and company have cast in the Supernatural prequel The Winchesters.

By Doug Norrie | Published

jensen ackles supernatural dean

Supernatural wrapped up its story a couple of years ago after one of the more successful, and frankly, improbable runs ever on television. At the time, I think most fans thought they’d seen the end of the Winchester family, having moved off this mortal coil. But in this day and age of television content, there’s always room for another story if the franchise is right, and that’s what we are going to get with the Supernatural prequel, The Winchesters. Now we are getting a first look at two of the hunters who will join the fray, slaying all kinds of things that go bump in the night in this world. Deadline has it that Jensen Ackles and company have cast Jojo Fleites and Nida Khurshid in major recurring roles for the series. 

While The Winchesters will follow the story of John and Mary, the parents of Jensen Ackles’ Dean and Jared Padalecki’s Sam, these two new characters will be part of the mix as well, likely expanding the world around who exactly has the powers and ability to take on this manner of evil. According to the loglines, Khurshid will play the character Latika Desai who is apparently a hunter-in-training when the show first opens. While maybe fearful to start, the series will explore how exactly she overcomes this and works with the Winchesters. Meanwhile, Fleites is playing Carlos Cervantez who will come across as a much more confident character, someone for who this line of works comes much easier.  Fleites posted about the announcement on Instagram.

These are two of the first pieces of casting news for The Winchesters beyond Jensen Ackles who will reprise his Dean Winchester role, but only as a narrator. Ackles is a big reason for the show coming to fruition, to begin with. He and his wife, Danneel Ackles are working with Robbie Thompson from the original series to bring this new story to life. While the Winchester parents were featured in the original show, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and either Samantha Smith or Amy Gumenick depending timeline, it is expected that these roles will be recast for the prequel. Interestingly enough, Jared Padalecki hasn’t been part of the development of this series. 

Jensen Ackles and Padalecki played the Winchester brothers for 15 seasons, mostly on The CW.  It was a wildly successful run for one of the longest-running live-action series in the history of television (the longest for a fantasy series). That they were able to develop a massive world of characters around the underworld, demons, spirits, and the pieces of evil that lurk in the shadows was even more impressive. When you have this kind of buy-in, it crystalizes why Ackles would want to re-up the story. Being able to mostly reset things, and give the history behind what the brothers ultimately faced opens up all kinds of new avenues of storytelling. 

Expect Jensen Ackles to give us The Winchesters some time this year or possibly early 2023. And we are sure to now hear about more of the main casting decisions as well with other parts starting to round out. Meanwhile, Jensen Ackles will be featured in Season 3 of Amazon’s The Boys as the new character Soldier Boy.