The CW Releases New Walker Poster

The CW has released a new poster for Walker, the network’s new hit series starring Supernatural star Jared Padalecki. The poster is pretty straightforward and features Padalecki as Cordell Walker looking directly at the viewer with the series title as well as its night and time printed along the bottom while the star’s name is printed along the top. The series debuted on The CW on January 21st and was recently renewed for a second season. The network also ordered additional episodes of the series current season bringing its Season 1 episode count up to 18.

Walker is a reboot of the long-running CBS series Walker, Texas Ranger which starred Chuck Norris and ran for eight seasons on that network between 1993 and 2001. That series also spawned a short-lived spinoff series, Sons of Thunder, in 1999 as well as a 2005 made-for-television film, Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire. Norris also still co-owns the original Walker, Texas Ranger, and Padalecki told Good Morning America that they had to get Norris’ blessing for the reboot.

“He did have to give his blessing. He helped create the original version and so he still co-owns it,” Padalecki said. “He didn’t have any problem with it, thank goodness because I don’t want to mess with Chuck Norris. But I’ve seen all the GIFs and memes and stuff. So, he did have to give his blessing.”

He added, “it’s a very, very different show, and our Walker, Texas Ranger is a very different Walker than his Walker, but he did give his blessing.”

One of the big differences with The CW series is that Walker isn’t as martial-arts heavy as the original. It also takes into account for generational differences between Norris’ version of the character and the one that Padalecki plays.

“This isn’t a show about karate,” Padalecki told the San Antonio Express-News. “It’s not about how many roundhouse kicks we have per episode.”

He added, “Our Walker grew up in the 80s like I did, as opposed to growing up in the 40s like Chuck did. It’s a very different generation we find ourselves in. Knowing what we know now, more than 25 years after the original premiered, no one wants to see a police officer walking around randomly kicking people.”

Walker airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.