The CW is prepping a Supernatural prequel called The Winchesters, but only Dean Winchester is returning to narrate the show, not his brother Sam.
The Supernatural prequel series The Winchesters is coming to The CW, but only one Winchester brother is narrating, and that’s Dean, not Sam. In fall 2020, the beloved series Supernatural came to an end after 15 largely successful seasons, cementing its place as one of the longest-running weekly dramas of all time. While the final episodes were compromised a bit by COVID-19 concerns, the show did at least get a proper ending, unlikely many programs in the pandemic era. Unsurprisingly, The CW doesn’t want to let Supernatural‘s loyal fanbase go, leading to the 2021 announcement that a prequel spinoff called The Winchesters was on the way.
The Winchesters will focus on younger versions of parents John and Mary Winchester tangling with monsters, although it remains to be seen just how much the established continuity will have to be bent to accomplish that. After all, the original Supernatural timeline establishes that John didn’t become a hunter of monsters until after Mary’s death, and wasn’t even aware of monsters until that point. To be fair, this isn’t the first time Supernatural has retconned its timeline.
To help tie The Winchesters prequel directly to Supernatural, Jensen Ackles is set to reprise his role of Dean Winchester, providing narration for his parents’ adventures. That’s a definite boost for The Winchesters‘ credibility as a spinoff, but it also begs the question of why Jared Padalecki’s Sam isn’t participating as well. As far as real life goes, this is likely due to Ackles himself having helped spearhead The Winchesters project, working behind the scenes as a producer. Padalecki famously didn’t know about the Supernatural prequel until it was first reported by the media, leading to a brief rift between the two longtime co-stars and best friends.
Thankfully, Ackles and Padalecki have long since cleared the air and confirmed publicly that they’re back on good terms. Even knowing that though, it still makes sense that Padalecki isn’t involved with The Winchesters, as he’s currently busy as both executive producer and star of The CW’s Walker, a loose reboot of Chuck Norris’ Walker, Texas Ranger. Walker has been renewed for season 3, and a Walker prequel is also on the way with Padalecki again an executive producer. He likely just doesn’t have the time to come in and record voice over for The Winchesters due to his other commitments.
Aside from real-life scheduling concerns, a possible in-universe explanation for the Supernatural‘s frequently killed Dean flying solo on The Winchesters narration is that being the older brother, he was the only one to be around for a considerable period of John and Mary’s time as a married couple. Mary was killed by Azazel when Sam was just a baby, after all. Plus, Dean was always the brother who really respected and revered his father, spending most of Supernatural‘s run staunchly defending John from Sam’s complaints about how the two boys had been raised. Considering that both Dean and Sam are canonically dead and in Heaven following Supernatural‘s series finale, though, it’ll be interesting to see when in the Supernatural timeline Dean decides to go on a mission of discovery about his parents’ past exploits.
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