Supernatural is a fan favorite dark fantasy drama that ran for 15 seasons. The story followed two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, as they hunted, demons, ghosts, monsters, and other types of supernatural beings. Viewers were sad to leave the world when the series ended almost two years ago.
Luckily the void will be filled soon with the prequel, The Winchesters. The upcoming show on The CW will travel to the 1970s to tell how Sam and Dean’s parents, Mary Campbell and Dean Winchester, met as well as their own monster hunting adventures.
Ahead of the series premiere, executive producers Jensen and Danneel Ackles and Robbie Thompson, and cast members Meg Donnelly, Drake Rogers, Dmetria McKinney, Nida Khurshid, Jojo Fleites, and Bianca Kajilich spoke with members of the press.
It can be tricky making a prequel because you don’t want to undo or contradict anything from that was previously established. The Winchesters drew inspiration from one of the best shows on TV that just wrapped up. Thompson said, “[w]e used Better Call Saul a lot as a sort of creative North Star, which is, that’s a show that obviously predates the events of Breaking Bad, but it, it exists in its own, in its own little bubble, in its own little universe. You can watch Breaking Bad, and in fact, it’s insane to me, but I know a lot of people who have never actually seen Breaking Bad.
However, they do have a little bit of flexibility when creating the narrative. He added, “[b]ecause we are a show that deals with the supernatural and paranormal, we have a few more tricks up our sleeves that we can kind of take advantage of. And we’ll be hinting at that throughout the season, and then really pulling it all back in Episode 13 to, to really let the audience in on, on, on what we’ve done.”
One aspect they want to retain from the original is the heart of Supernatural. Jensen elaborated, “Well, certainly trying to recapture that heart that I feel Supernatural really had. You know, at the end of the day, the show was about the relationship between these two brothers…it really came back to the relationship that these two, these two guys had. And, how they fought, not only for, for the greater good, but they fought for each other.”
However, instead of a relationship between siblings, The Winchesters wanted to incorporate the romance of their parents. Jensen continued, “And I felt like if we could, if we could tell that with, with John and Mary, but also have this love story be… you know, the kind of the, the kicker, I just felt like that was really important. That’s something that Robbie and Danneel and I talked about at length, was making sure that this, this truly had the heart that a show needed…it’s gotta have that relationship and it’s gotta have those cast of characters that you really want to keep coming back week to week to watch.”
Jensen also felt that Rogers and Donnelly really matched the lead characters of Dean and Mary respectively. “Drake really jumped off very quickly as somebody that almost seemed like a hybrid of Dean and Sam, not necessarily a replica of, a previous John Winchester. So that was really interesting to, to all of us…So there was a kind of an innocence, a youthfulness and a thirst for life that Drake brought to this character that was really unique and, and refreshing.”
With respect to Mary, his TV mom, the EP talked about what Donnelly brought to the table. “Meg was Meg was certainly, um somebody who just, she exuded something that we were all very interested in immediately. And she, yeah, there was, there was really no question… she’s, she’s so strong and she’s, and she has this, this fantastic.”
Because The Winchesters is in a shared universe, be prepared for the return of recognizable characters. Thompson said, “100% yes. I don’t think I can spoil exactly who, but we have some very familiar faces that are gonna be coming up in an episode we’re gonna shoot in a couple of days. Uh, and then some more after that, and then some more that I can’t even reveal. Uh, hopefully someone that’s on the Zoom as well, at a certain point <LAUGHS> I’m looking at you, Ackles. Um so yeah, we, we, we have plans for that. And we also have plans you know, not just to bring back some of our familiar faces, but as you’re pointing out, younger versions of the characters that maybe we haven’t, we haven’t seen yet.”
The CW is in a middle of a regime change with the former chairman and CEO of the network, Mark Pedowitz stepping down recently. Jensen took some time to express his appreciation for his former boss. “You know, Jared and I used to always like to refer to him as the other Winchester brother. I think that, that he will certainly continue to champion the show from wherever he wants to. But I’m just so thankful for what he did, not only for the network itself, but for, for this this world specifically. He’s a true mentor of mine.”
Don’t miss the series premiere of The Winchesters tonight, October 11, on The CW.
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