The whole journey of Supernatural began with Dean and Sam, played by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, learning about their parents. And though things went way beyond that over the subsequent decade, a new show, The Winchesters, is bringing Supernatural back to those roots, and now the two actors playing those roles have been revealed.
Deadline reports that Meg Donnelly and Drake Rodger will star in the pilot as young Mary and John Winchester, parents of Dean and Sam, in the story of how the lovebirds met and started their demon-hunting journey that led to everything that came after. The show will be told in flashback as Dean (Ackles, who is also an executive producer) recounts the tale. On the original show, the roles were played by The Walking Dead’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Smith (Transformers).
Donnelly is probably best known to the sci-fi set as the lead character, Addison, of the Disney Channel Zombies movies. She also appeared for five years on the show American Housewife. Rodger is in a Paramount+ original movie called The In-Between as well as an upcoming film called Quiet in My Town. In this series, Donnelly’s Mary has been in the family business of fighting the forces of darkness for years. She’s about to quit until she meets John. John has just come back from Vietnam and, after trying to learn more about his father, finds out he was part of this whole other world.
Running for a bonkers 15 seasons and over 325 episodes, Supernatural was a massive, massive hit. That would suggest this show, which should fill in some gaps in regards to mythology and motivation for that series, has similar potential. And yet, it’s hard to ignore the odd fact that star Jensen Ackles never asked Jared Padalecki to be a part of this in any capacity. Just from a fan perspective, could it be hard to latch onto a show about where Sam and Dean came from if Dean didn’t want Sam on board in the first place?
There’s no word on when The Winchesters will make its debut but as the leads were just cast, late 2022 or early 2023 seems the most likely.