The Winchesters was inspired by Jensen Ackles’ Supernatural rewatch

Supernatural ran for 15 seasons over on The WB and The CW, a long run for any show. But there could be more. Next month, The CW will premiere The Winchesters, a prequel series that follows the adventures of John Winchester and Mary Campbell, the parents of Supernatural leads Sam and Dean Winchester.

What made The CW want to get back into the Supernatural business? It started during pandemic lockdown, when Jensen Ackles and his wife Danneel — both of whom had been on the original show — decided to rewatch select episodes of the show and share their thoughts with fans. “It was full pandemic lockdown 2020, Danneel and I with three kids in a house and we’re like, uh, we need to do something creative,” Ackles told Entertainment Weekly. “Almost every celebrity was doing something ridiculous in their house, and I’m like, well, I don’t want to embarrass myself by trying to make a sourdough loaf.”

Their aftershow was popular enough that The CW wanted to turn it into a proper series, but that didn’t work out. It did, however, open the door to something more. “That kick-started Danneel and I workshopping ideas and it also put us in the Supernatural world,” Jensen said. “Then we asked: What would be a story that I would want to see outside of the show?”

"If you’re going to spin off from this world, it’s gotta be about a main character, it’s gotta be about a Winchester. I think it was Danneel who was like, ‘Well, it’s your mom and dad.’"

Ackles, who narrates the new series as well as serving as executive producer, reached out to Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson to ask if he wanted to be showrunner on The Winchesters. The team is under pressure to deliver a worthy followup to what was a very beloved series. “”A lot of people are like, ‘Hang on, are you changing the lore?’ Is this like Back to the Future, where Dean and Sam are going to start to disappear in the picture?’ It’s not,” Jensen assured people. “We obviously don’t want to change anything that was experienced on what we lovingly call the mothership.”

“Everybody who’s involved in this project loves this show,” Danneel continued. “We have lived this show for 15 years; it’s a family member. So just trust us that we’re going to take care of it.”

Meet young John and Mary Winchester in The CW’s Supernatural prequel

The show is set decades before Supernatural, back in the 1970s before John and Mary got married and had kids. Drake Rodger will play John and Meg Donnelly is a young Mary.

Jensen remembered what he told the new leads. “There was probably a small pep talk,” he said. “This isn’t just coming on to a new thing, this is something that has 15 years of intense storytelling and you guys are a representative of this thing that we built, of the family. And there’s a big population of people that are very protective of the story and of these characters and you are the new stewards of this and you need to understand the weight of that and you need to understand how important it is to treat this with care and respect.”

"Because I’m like, listen, I didn’t work my ass off for 15 years to have you kids come in here and f— it up."

That last part was said in jest, just to be clear.

The Winchesters premieres on The CW on October 11.

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