The Winchesters NYCC panel unveiled a Supernatural prequel with much more Jensen Ackles than anticipated

Aquarian stars, missing fathers, bunkers, and flirtatious coffee orders abound in the pilot for The CW’s Supernatural prequel The Winchesters, which focuses on young variations of Sam and Dean’s mom and dad. The clearly show stars Meg Donnelly (Z.O.M.B.I.E.S.) and Drake Rodger (Silent In My Town) as star-crossed fans Mary and John Winchester. Rodger, Donnelly, showrunner Robbie Thompson, Ackles and his wife/executive producer/Supernatural solid alum Danneel Ackles all attended a New York Comedian Con panel for the new collection, which also served as a victory lap for Supernatural. The flagship collection ended its 15-year, 327-episode-lengthy operate in 2020, but the story is seemingly considerably from around.

Also on phase, albeit briefly, was Tom Welling, who amazed the NYCC viewers with the announcement that he will engage in Mary Winchester’s father Samuel Campbell. Ackles and Welling labored with each other just before Supernatural on Smallville, and Ackles experienced a great deal of exciting teasing that abbreviating The Winchesters to “TW” created him consider of a different “TW” just before revealing his involvement. Ackles also introduced that Richard Speight Jr., who performed Gabriel and Loki on Supernatural, is directing some episodes. (If Thompson expressing “I’m very low-crucial excited” about upcoming cameos was a pun and a hint, Speight might seem on The Winchesters as properly.)

Picture: Matt Miller/The CW

One particular of the most exciting facets of the pilot is the position performed by Supernatural’s own Jensen Ackles. His previous and potential character Dean doesn’t just narrate the collection — and, in accordance to him, decide the songs — he seems at the conclude and sets off on a quest relevant to the mystery. By managing two narratives in two distinctive time durations, The Winchesters keeps Supernatural alive and opens up the likelihood for extra returning people. “I’m using requests all night time,” Ackles explained to issues about figures like Castiel and Crowley. Even with out the flash-forward, this is, right after all, a supernatural planet the place time and living status don’t always make a difference to all of the characters.

This could perhaps tie into what Dean is up to in the existing, as seen in the series’ pilot. The place is he driving his Impala to? Are one or far more of the new people released in the pilot continue to alive? Why does Dean know so considerably about the “malevolent force” that threatens not only Earth but “all of existence” and why is he even now placing with each other some of the items?

With out offering far too much absent, the present normally takes place in 1972 and will get off to a functioning start properly right before the reveal that Dean is on a journey. In the initial episode, we see his long run father John return house from the Vietnam War, have his 1st handful of encounters with the supernatural, have a fulfill-cute with Mary, then make the final decision to turn into a demon hunter. It is an complete whirlwind.

The aforementioned new people in the pilot consist of Nida Khurshid (Station 19) as Mary’s close friend and fellow demon hunter Latika Desai and nonbinary actor Jojo Fleites as Carlos Cervantez, a further close friend and demon hunter who is brazenly bisexual, rather of a rarity in a franchise that has had queer recurring characters in advance of, but furthermore and infamously faced a decade of queer-baiting accusations from followers. There’s also Ada Monroe, played by Demetria McKinney (Tyler Perry’s Residence of Payne) who owns a bookshop and is aware of all about the Males of Letters and the specific monsters plaguing these younger adults. All a few figures, it really should be famous, are non-white, which sits in stark distinction to Supernatural’s casting. Thompson claimed all through the panel that one of the show’s ambitions was to be much more inclusive.

With all of the Easter eggs and cameos, the “origin story” of the Winchester loved ones and the new “core four” hunters experience like icing on the cake. But as Ackles stated, when he and his spouse conceived the collection in the course of Covid lockdowns in 2020: “If we’re gonna extend this earth it is gonna assistance if there is a Winchester included.” And included he is.