Supernatural Reveals First Look at New Young Sam and Dean Actors

The CW has released photos for “Drag Me Away (From You)” the upcoming 16th episode of Supernatural‘s final season. The episode will see Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) investigate the murder of a childhood friend, and in flashbacks fans will get to see flashbacks to the Winchester brothers’ past featuring two new actors in the roles of Sam and Dean’s younger selves. The Haunting of Hill House’s Paxton Singleton will play Young Dean while When Calls the Heart’s Christian Michael Cooper will appear as Young Sam.

This is far from the first time fans have seen young versions of the Winchester brothers. Young Dean has previously been played at various ages by Ridge Canipe, Dylan Everett, Brock Kelly and others while Young Sam was most notably played by Colin Ford previously. As fans have noticed, the series has gotten away from flashbacks to the Winchester brothers’ past in recent seasons, something showrunner Andrew Dabb explained to TVLine was simply because the actors they’d used in those roles had aged out.

“We kind of moved away from [it] largely because the actors who we’d come to rely on to play Young Sam and Young Dean got too old,” Dabb said. “Colin Ford, right now, is older than Jared was when the show started, I think.”

However, with the show ending, they decided to visit the past once again in a way Dabb says is a “really good reflection” of where the characters are now.

“Meghan [Fitzmartin], one of the writers on the show, came in with an idea, and it worked for us,” Dabb said. “It worked not only as a case right now, but also as something that informed the journey Sam and Dean have taken, where they started as kids, how they kind of came together and then how that has [led up] to the point that they are, emotionally, when the episode airs. So, it ended up being a really good reflection of our guys now, telling a story about our guys then, which, to me, are always the best versions of those types of flashback stories.”

You can check out the synopsis for “Drag Me Away (From You)” below and read on for photos from the episode.

FLASHBACK TO A YOUNG SAM AND DEAN — Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) are asked to investigate the murder of a childhood friend, calling them back to a motel from their past and perplexing the brothers with a case they thought was solved a long time ago. Amyn Kaderali directed the episode written by Meghan Fitzmartin.

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