After 15 seasons, the fantasy-horror-drama series Supernatural finally came to a close in 2020. Now, the show has a prequel about Sam and Dean Winchester’s parents, John and Mary. The spin-off is spearheaded by former Dean Winchester actor, Jensen Ackles, and his wife Danneel.
The announcement caused a stir among Supernatural alumni and fans alike. But what do we know about this spin-off? We’ve rounded up all the information so far.
The Winchesters release date
The Winchesters is rolling out episodes now on The CW . The show started production in April in New Orleans.
The UK doesn’t yet have a release date for The Winchesters. It is likely to be syndicated on E4, as many other CW shows are. However, there may be a delay for viewers across the pond. Fortunately, there is a way to watch The CW from abroad.
Hypable reported that The Winchesters is one of five shows currently in development by Jensen and Danneel – so there could be more Supernatural spin-offs in the pipeline.
How to watch The Winchesters from outside of the US
If you’re based in the UK – are any other country besides the US – then you may be looking for a way to watch The Winchesters. Fortunately, you can stream episodes very easily, using the help of a VPN.
VPN stands for virtual private network, and it essentially reroutes your IP address. This makes it look like you’re browsing from another country, and you can use this method to overcome sites which are geo-locked to certain regions.
There are lots of VPNs to choose from, but for the best prices and performance we recommend either NordVPN or Surfshark . Check out further options in our list of the best VPNs for streaming .
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Once you have downloaded your chosen VPN, simply head to the CWTV website , where The Winchesters is available to stream . You should be able to stream without needing to sign in.
If you get any stuttering, then try refreshing the page or connecting to a brand new server.
The Winchesters trailers and posters
Here is the first trailer for The Winchesters, which shows off John and Mary meeting, their first fights together as hunters, and how Dean Winchester is on a mission to uncover their true past:
Then there is this official (rather creepy) poster:
The Winchesters cast and crew
We now have our John and Mary Winchester – Meg Donnelly and Drake Rodger.
Donnelly is best known for American Housewife, the Disney Channel Zombie film series and High School Musical: The Musical. Meanwhile, Rodger is known for The In Between.
Joining them will be Nida Khurshid and Jojo Fleites. The former is a graduate of the Disney Discovers Talent Showcase, and has appeared in Station 19 and For The People. The Winchesters will be Fleites’s first TV series, after appearing in numerous theatre shows such as Rent, Hair and A Chorus Line.
Khurshid will play Latika Desai, a young, intelligent hunter-in-training who excels with research and problem-solving. Fleites meanwhile will play Carlos Cervantez, a positive force on the team who is natural at fighting demons.
Also starring in the show will be Bianca Kajlich as Millie Winchester (Henry Winchester’s wife), Demetria McKinney as Ada Monroe and Michael Tacconi as Hank Murphy. Smallville’s Tom Welling will be playing Samuel Campbell, Mary’s father – the man who taught her everything she knows about hunting.
In addition, Supernatural alumni Jensen Ackles will be returning to narrate as Dean Winchester.
Ackles will also be behind-the-scenes, executive producing the series with his wife Danneel and their company, Chaos Machine Productions. This is the first project to be confirmed for the company. The pair have said to be working with the head of development, Renee Reiff.
Also acting as an executive producer is former Supernatural writer, Robbie Thompson. Thompson will also be penning the script for this series. Supergirl’s Glen Winter will direct and executive produce the pilot.
The original creator of Supernatural, Eric Kripke, will not be working on the series (he’s likely too busy with The Boys ). However, Jensen Ackles did go to him for his blessing to push forward with the project.
Misha Collins, the actor who played Castiel, also joked on Twitter that his character is a time-travelling Angel and could easily make an appearance in the show.
Ackles told TV Line “The great thing about this world is that nothing is off the table. We have ways of bringing back fan-favourite characters and the actors that played them”. Therefore, we could expect Rowena, Cas and other familiar faces to show up.
Supernatural fans may be very surprised to hear that Jared Padalecki, AKA Sam Winchester, took to Twitter to air his grievances about the show publicly. Allegedly he was not informed about the project and was ‘gutted’ to find out over the internet.
Both Ackles and Padalecki have since hashed out their differences , but it still remains to be seen whether Jared will have any creative involvement with the prequel.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Smith played John Winchester and Mary Winchester on Supernatural respectively. As the show is following younger versions of the characters, we assume that if these two do appear, it will only be briefly.
Supernatural did actually do a flashback episode that featured young John and Mary, who was played by Matt Cohen and Amy Gumenick respectively. Matt Cohen has now confirmed that he is not involved , but is excited to see where the show goes.
Jensen has since expressed an interest to EW in both Jeffery Dean Morgan and Matt Cohen reprising their roles as John Winchester at some point.
Plot of The Winchesters
The show will explore how John and Mary Winchester first met, fell in love and risked their lives to save both each other and the entire world as young hunters. It will take place in 1972, according to Danneel Ackles. The entire story will be framed from the perspective of Dean Winchester, who will be narrating the story.
In a quote to Deadline, Jensen Ackles states: “I always felt like my character, Dean, would have wanted to know more about his parents’ relationship and how it came to be. So I love the thought of having him take us on this journey.”
Mary Campbell is just 19 years old when The Winchesters takes place. The prequel will pick up after she has just lost someone close to her, and is considering leaving hunting behind. However, when her father (Samuel Campbell) vanishes, she must team up with her new acquaintance, John Winchester, to find out what is going on.
John has recently returned from Vietnam, and follows traces of his father’s past to discover a whole new world of demons and monsters. Drake Rodger – the actor playing John – has discussed how the trajectory of his character is similar to Breaking Bad’s Walter White, in that we will see a transition in his personality.
John and Mary will join new faces Latika and Carlos to discover more about their families. Their investigation leads them to Ada, an owner of a book emporium, who points them in the right direction.
It has to be stated that some of these plot points do contradict the story told in Supernatural, where it was implied that John and Mary had never hunted together before. Perhaps this is a new timeline created by Chuck?
Jensen Ackles has addressed this at Supernatural conventions, stating that the show is not “just tossing away 15 years of established story. It’s just how we’re going to get to it may not be what you expected.”
It’s likely that we may see some younger versions of John and Mary’s friends, such as Bobby and Rufus. It may also be set up similar to Supernatural, with a different monster of the week in each episode.
We don’t know whether this will be a short, limited series or run for several seasons. This may depend on how well it performs.
How to watch The Winchesters
Chaos Machine Productions has an exclusive deal with Warner Bros., which means that any projects will air on a channel/streaming service owned by the company.
It is currently airing on The CW in the US. In the future, it may be available on the Warner Bros. flagship streaming service, HBO Max .
Author: Hannah Cowton-Barnes, Entertainment Editor, Tech Advisor
As Tech Advisor’s Entertainment Editor, Hannah is the resident expert in all things streaming, film and TV. Before joining Tech Advisor in 2019, she studied Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds and created a website dedicated to geek culture and lifestyle. She’s also reviewed a whole range of gadgets including flagship smartphones, wearables and styling tools. Outside of Foundry, she’s written freelance pieces for Polygon, Metro and Den of Geek, and is proud to be a Women Techmakers Ambassador for Google.
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