Supernatural Star Jared Padalecki “Bummed” After Hearing About Jensen Ackles’ Prequel

Last year seemed to signify the end of an era for The CW, as Supernatural came to an end after fifteen seasons. On Thursday night, that proved to not quite be the case, with word that a prequel series is currently in development at the network. The hypothetical series, called The Winchesters, would follow the younger exploits of the parents of Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), and would be executive produced by Ackles and his wife, fellow Supernatural alum Danneel Ackles. The news of the potential series definitely surprised the Supernatural fandom — and as a new series of social media posts proves, it also surprised Padalecki, who took to Twitter to respond to the news. While retweeting Ackles’ tweet announcing the prequel, Padalecki revealed that while he’s “happy for” his former co-star, he wished he’d “heard about this some way other than Twitter”, and admitted that he was “bummed” at Sam’s lack of involvement in the series.

In a follow-up tweet, Padalecki — who currently stars on The CW’s Walker — confirmed to a fan that he had not heard about the potential series until news of it broke publicly. He also revealed that he’s “gutted” by the news.

A description for The Winchesters reads “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.”

If The Winchesters were to come to fruition, it would be the first spinoff from the series to successfully do so, after attempts that included Supernatural: Bloodlines and Wayward Sisters.

“I think that’s also maybe one of the reasons why the spinoffs haven’t taken off, is because when you have a show that is so anchored not necessarily in a world but around two characters, that it makes it difficult to tell the story without those two characters present,” Ackles previously said of the series’ failed spinoffs. “I know that it’s been done, but I think it is tough. I think that for my money, it would be Castiel and his garrison of angels, but that’s just me.”

What do you think of Jared Padalecki‘s reaction to The Winchesters news? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!