Jensen Ackles Maps Out the Creative Process Behind ‘The Winchesters’

The new Supernatural prequel premieres on the CW on October 11

“Nothing ever really ends, does it?” This is how Jensen Ackles explained that a Supernatural spinoff was never not on the table. He knew, even as the 15th season of CW’s monster hit wrapped in 2020, that no matter how many times Sam and Dean die, it’s not over. In June of 2021, he told Deadline that the new series would dive into the origin of the Winchester family and  not just that, but he had the production company to do it. Chaos Machine Productions was launched in October 2020 by Ackles and his wife Danneel Ackles, not long after sealing a deal with Warner Bros. for a multi-season Supernatural product. And now, finally, the creative process of shaping the prequel around the Winchester family has come to fruition.

As the season trailer of The Winchesters reveals, Mary Winchester (Meg Donnelly) and John Winchester (Drake Rodger) hook up after John returns home from the Vietnam War. The upcoming season shines a light into the long-elusive past of the Winchester parents. It starts with John and Mary falling in love in 1972. Ackles narrates The Winchesters in Dean’s voice. He tells us that his father came home from war only to find himself battling a new enemy, an unearthly enemy who may have slain both his father and Mary’s. John and Mary find themselves hunting demons, side-by-side, in a battle to save the world.

“Canon? We got you.” This tweet announced, for the first time, that the new series would stay true to Supernatural. On June 26, 2021, Ackles reassured nervous fans who waited for confirmation that the prequel would stick to the original story. He also wrote, “Figuring out [the canon] has been the fun stuff.” That tweet also confirmed that the recent news of a surprise prequel announcement was real, that Chaos Machine was in fact producing The Winchesters. Although, news of The Winchesters first leaked as early as March.

As executive producers of The Winchesters. the Ackles team invited Supernatural co-EP Robbie Thompson on board as showrunner. He is writer, as well as co-EP, of The Winchesters. Ackles talked about sitting down with Thompson and hashing out the creative details. Writing the script was a daunting job. Ackles admitted to TVLine that he was not even sure if he could handle the task. He said there were a lot of dots to connect, but the challenge was finding the best way to connect them.

Once he and Thompson began collaborating, things fell into place. Through that process, Ackles discovered, “If we connect those dots in a much crazier, wild Supernatural way, then we’ve got a show.” And that is what they did. Thompson, some may recall, is the writer behind “Fan Fiction,” a top fan-favorite episode. He joined Supernatural as a writer in season 7. As show runner for The Winchesters, he now has a major role in creating and shaping the canon within the new series. With The Winchesters’ imminent television debut, the new direction will begin to take shape, showing exactly what the team has produced.

The Ackles said that work on The Winchesters kicked into high gear during the 2020 leg of the pandemic. Stuck at home with three children, the Ackles began the project by doing a rewatch show. Sitting together, the couple recorded themselves reacting to the viewing of old Supernatural episodes. According to Entertainment Weekly, CW wanted to broadcast the rewatch as a new series, but it was not feasible for the Ackles to produce as many episodes as the film company required. Plus, they had other work to do. During that time, they were nailing down a narrative for the prequel. Talking to EW, Ackles credited Danneel with inspiring the main storyline. He already felt certain the prequel should be about a Winchester, but it was Danneel, who said it should be about the Winchester parents. Danneel appeared as Sister Jo in the last three seasons of Supernatural.

We are left with only one question: Will “Baby” be back? The black Impala that Dean acquired from his father could, ostensibly, co-star in the new series. The trailer appears to show John and Mary in a car that looks like an Impala. Tune in. The Winchesters premieres on October 11.