Supernatural Prequel The Winchesters Is Taking A Big Step Forward

The Supernatural prequel The Winchesters just got some excellent news and it looks like it will be moving forward in a meaningful way

By Doug Norrie | Updated

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It looks like Jensen Ackles and company are set to make a big move forward with the Supernatural prequel, The Winchesters. Deadline is reporting that The CW has announced a number of shows are heading into their pilot and one of them will be this new series. It’s part of a bigger push around new series on the network. And in addition to Jensen Ackles, Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki whose series Walker: Independence was also given the green light as well. While the latter isn’t working on the Supernatural prequel, it’s clear The CW is still very interested in working with its former stars. 

The Supernatural prequel The Winchesters is set to follow the parents of the original series brothers Sam Dean. This one will go back in time to tell the story around John and Mary Winchester who are the original folks dealing with all the things that go bump in the night. The brothers picked up the mantle after their parents, but this new series will go back and fill in something like the origin story about how this whole process started. 

For The Winchesters, Jensen Ackles is on as a producer along with his wife Danneel Ackles and Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson. Ackles will also be on as a narrator for the series, though it’s unclear if we ever see him actually up on the screen. The latter would likely be a much heavier lift considering the story follows the years well before the two brothers were actually born. As of this writing, there hadn’t been any casting news for the lead roles though with the new pilot order, we could be getting that news sooner than later. 

It’s not all that surprising that The CW is going this direction with The Winchesters considering how popular Supernatural was over its many years on the network. With Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki in the leads, the series lasted whopping 15 seasons, making it one of the longest-running live-action series in the history of primetime television. And though the ratings dipped a bit over the second half of its run, it was still one of the stronger performers for the network. 

With The Winchesters, The CW can now further build out this franchise, giving a much clearer history around the family as a whole. And this direction is much easier than a spin-off of the original considering how that one ultimately finished up. While in the process of creating the show, Jensen Ackles actually didn’t seek out the input or another partnership with Jared Padalecki with the latter finding out about the idea just like everyone else when it was first announced to the media. But apparently, there wasn’t bad blood on that front with Ackles letting on that he was too nervous about the process and didn’t want to jinx it. 

We are likely to get updated The Winchesters news around casting and timing in short order with the show now moving full steam ahead into production. We’ll have all of those updates as they are released.