The Winchesters Fails to Find New Home After CW Cancellation

It is the end of the line for The Winchesters. According to Deadline, efforts to find the Supernatural prequel spinoff series a new home on another network or streaming platform have been unsuccessful leaving the show’s Season 1 finale to stand as a series-ender. The series was cancelled by The CW last month along with fellow freshman series Walker: Independence and Kung Fu, which ran for three seasons. The cancellation of The Winchesters marks the end of the Supernatural franchise, at least for now.

When The Winchesters was cancelled, it was reported that Warner Bros. Television had been exploring options for a potential new home for the series in anticipation of The CW’s decision — the network has been undergoing various programing shifts since being acquired by Nexstar late last year. Series executive producer and Supernatural star Jensen Ackles also explained at the time that there was a five-season plan for The Winchesters that he was hopeful they would get to execute.

“We were talking not only about story and where we wanted to take our cast, we were talking about who we were going to bring back from the mothership,” Ackles said. “We were putting together a lot of tricks to keep up our sleeves and keep it exciting, not just for the new fans, but for the returning fans as well.”

He continued, “Hopefully we get to execute that,” he said. “I just think that there’s a way to keep this alive and it would be a shame to let that go.”

Jensen had also teased that the continuation of The Winchesters would eventually culminate in a possible Supernatural return. Supernatural was one of The CW’s most popular series, lasting for 15 seasons, having started on The WB in 2005 before that network became The CW in 2006.

“And then we don’t know what it would look like beyond that, but there was certainly a way of tying this into a possible return of Supernatural down the line, which Robbie [Thompson] and I had talked about. It’s something that Jared [Padalecki] and I have talked about, what that might look like,” he said.

What is The Winchesters about?

Set in the 1970’s, The Winchesters chronicles how John (Drake Rodger) and Mary (Meg Donnelly) met, fell in love, and fought monsters together while in search for their missing fathers. The series also stars Bianca Kajlich as Millie Winchester, Demetria McKinney as Ada Monroe, Nida Khurshid as Latika Desai, and Jojo Fleites as Carlos Cervantez. Supernatural star Jensen Ackles executive produced the series and serves as its narrator.

“I think on this project alone, not only was it a huge step for me career-wise, because I’ve never done something like this before, but also in life, because it was my first time living alone in New Orleans and kind of meeting new people in that way,” Donnelly told ComicBook.com in an interview shortly after the Season 1 finale. “And I feel like I just learned so much about myself during filming, and I’m so grateful for that. The Winchesters will always have a special place in my heart just because I feel like it was such a huge learning curve in my whole life. So, I’m really grateful for that. And with the fans, man, I really hope that people just enjoyed watching the show. I mean, we put our blood, sweat and tears into it literally, because there’s a lot of fight scenes, which is so much fun. And I just hope that even the Supernatural fans, it was just really cool. It’s been a while since Supernatural has aired and it was just kind of comforting for them and definitely heartbreaking in some ways because I know there’s so much foreshadowing and so much context. But I hope that it kind of healed their inner child, their inner Supernatural fans. And also, that you can lose your own destiny. And even with all the cards that are stacked against you.”

Are you disappointed that The Winchesters is officially done? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.