Jensen Ackles Talks ‘Supernatural’ Reboot Possibility + Upcoming Prequel

After running for 15 seasons, Supernatural has quite a dedicated fanbase. Is it enough to summon the spirit of Supernatural from the dead once again? If you ask Jensen Ackles, it just might be.

According to Ackles, the Season 15 finale wasn’t so much a “goodbye” as a “see you later.”

When asked about a potential Supernatural reboot, Ackles tells CinePOP, “I don’t think Jared and I hung up the boots, so to speak, as a permanent move. It was more of like, 15 years, we need to just press pause. It’s a long time, and come up for air and see what that looks like, and this is what it looks like.”

Ackles adds, “But what the future holds — yeah, I definitely think he and I would be up for talking about that.” 

As far as definitive answers on a revival, nothing is concrete. It’s more likely we’ll see Jared Padalecki and Jeffrey Dean Morgan possibly reunite with Jensen Ackles on The Boys first. 

But in the meantime, Ackles isn’t leaving the world of Supernatural behind. He’s also involved in the upcoming prequel which will air this fall on the CW.

The Winchesters: A Supernatural Prequel

While episodes of Supernatural touched on the beginning of Mary and John’s relationship, we never had definitive answers on their origin story. Dean Winchester was always desperate to know more about his mom, and Jensen Ackles (who played Dean), wanted to explore that answer as well.

Ackles is producing The Winchesters and he will also narrate the series. We’ll see first-hand flashbacks of a young Mary and John Winchester, well before they have Dean and Sam. 

In Supernatural, John Winchester was always gruff and guarded, never giving up much information about his past. It pained him too much to talk about Mary, so it makes sense that Dean would feel compelled to seek out answers on his own.

Meg Donnelly will play Mary Campbell, Drake Rodger will play John Winchester, and Bianca Kajlich will play Millie Winchester, Dean and Sam’s paternal grandmother.

Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and The Winchesters

In June 2021, Deadline announced that The Winchesters was in development. Jensen Ackles and his wife Danneel were set as executive producers for the show, with their production company, Chaos Machine Productions at the helm.

Ackles explained that, “When Danneel and I formed Chaos Machine Productions, we knew the first story we wanted to tell was the story of John and Mary Winchester, or rather the Supernatural origin story.”

“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.” Ackles added.

Previous Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson was also set to executive produce and write the show. So it sounds like a great Supernatural creative reunion, right? Too bad no one invited Sam.

When the announcement went live on Twitter, Jared Padalecki tweeted back, “Dude. Happy for you. Wish I heard about this some way other than Twitter. I’m excited to watch, but bummed that Sam Winchester had no involvement whatsoever.”

Other Twitter users asked if it was a joke and Padalecki confirmed, “No. It’s not. This is the first I’ve heard about it. I’m gutted.”

Since then, the two have reportedly made up and all is well.

How Involved Is Jensen Ackles in The Winchesters?

When asked about how involved Jensen Ackles was on production, Meg Donnelly said, “He was on set every single day of the pilot, just like being super collaborative, giving us notes, telling us about the universe that we might not know about. So it was really good insight.”

According to Supernatural, you’re a hunter until the day you die. Or even after that, depending on how many times you get brought back to life. It’s just in your blood. And with the creativity of the Supernatural writers, there’s simply no end to the monsters, demons, and world-ending apocalypses to battle against.

So of course the Winchester brothers aren’t done with saving people, hunting things. You know, the family business.

The Winchesters will debut on October 11th, 2022, and new episodes will follow on Thursday nights at 8:00pm on the CW.