Last night, Jensen Ackles and The CW surprised everyone — including, somewhat awkwardly, Ackles’ longtime co-star Jared Padalecki — when they announced that a Supernatural prequel titled The Winchesters was being developed for the network. The show will reportedly follow the life and love of John and Mary Winchester, the parents of the series’ original leads, who were played on the show by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Smith, respectively. Produced by Jensen Ackles and his wife Danneel, the series will be narrated by Dean, but that’s the only piece of casting information anybody has made so far, since at this point the pilot is just in development and not actually going into production yet.
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A description for The Winchesters describes it as such: “Before Sam and Dean, there was John and Mary. Told from the perspective of narrator Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), The Winchesters is the epic, untold love story of how John met Mary and how they put it all on the line to not only save their love, but the entire world.”
“After Supernatural wrapped its 15th season, we knew it wasn’t over. Because like we say in the show, ‘nothing ever really ends, does it?’” Ackles said in a statement. “When Danneel and I formed Chaos Machine Productions, we knew the first story we wanted to tell was the story of John and Mary Winchester, or rather the Supernatural origin story. I always felt like my character, Dean, would have wanted to know more about his parents’ relationship and how it came to be. So I love the thought of having him take us on this journey.”
This marks The CW’s third attempt to develop a spinoff for Supernatural, the first being Supernatural: Bloodlines and the second being Wayward Sisters. Both were developed while the series was still on the air and would have sent characters from the main series off into a show of their own. Neither moved forward. That might not seem like an ideal situation for The Winchesters, but the idea of Ackles (and Dean) being involved lend it a weight the others didn’t have.
If Morgan, one of the most famous Supernatural alumni, were to sign off on it or even better, take part, it seems likely that some of the fans feeling burned by Padalecki’s exclusion might find themsevles feeling a little better.
You can see some comments from Supernatural fans wondering where Jeffrey Dean Morgan stands in all of this, below.
Fans want to know what he thinks about the situation
jeffrey dean morgan your silence on the spn prequel fallout is deafening
— scarlett (@yesfirs) June 25, 2021
They are, of course, curious whether he will star
So wait..is Jeffrey Dean Morgan gonna star in this? I would assume so but I couldn’t find anything in the article that said he has signed on
— Jamie (@JamJamGaGa) June 25, 2021
They’re trying to figure out how it would all make sense, logistically
Maybe they were, and then an angel reset their memories.
— James Boggie (@JamesBoggie) June 25, 2021
I just hope they bring back Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Smith to play John and Mary in their 20s.
Maybe we’d even get to see a little more of Adam, the Winchester brother who spent most of the series trapped in a cage in the afterlife
yeah as much as i’d complain at first about a john centeic prequel i like seeing jeffrey dean morgan and seeing adam again would be nice
— 🍑💖Assitude💖🍑 (@esidisibooks) June 25, 2021
Some concern about the show itself
okay but now thinking about it, the whole prequel thing could’ve come from jensen just wanting to work with jeffrey dean morgan again and that’s understandable since they’re best friends but the whole thing being based on abusive parents is just not it.
— cas ♡ (@svftcas) June 25, 2021
Some people really feel like he has to be cast
If this Supernatural spinoff gets the green light, I wonder who they’ll get to play Mary and John Winchester? It doesn’t seem right to have anyone but Jeffrey Dean Morgan play John 😕
— amanda (@reysavedbensolo) June 25, 2021
I would maybe be interested in seeing a show led by Jeffrey Dean Morgan that showed what he was up too when he left the kids alone. JDM is good at making you care about not Great guys and we didn’t see a LOT of what he did when he left them. Much less from his POV.
— Sydney ( #SaveProdigalSon ) (@VexingTimes) June 25, 2021
…Maybe this argument will finally be settled
I KNOW RIGHT? Jeffrey Dean Morgan is her favorite actor so that part is understandable, but she is somehow convinced J*hn is a good person… we have literally been having an ongoing argument about if he was a good father or not for 2 1/2 years now
— Fiona Hansen | 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ Love is love (@Emo_Angel4) June 25, 2021