Going to New York Comic-Con and speaking to Jensen Ackles again was a big draw this year. It was his first NYCC, by the way. Talking to Danneel Ackles was even more exciting because I’ve always wanted to interview someone from One Tree Hill. I met Tyler Hilton in 2019 at his concert, and I’m headed to the Drama Queens podcast show this Sunday in New York City, but interviewing one of them was a dream come true.
Danneel’s passion for the show comes through. She may have only guest starred in a handful of episodes and hasn’t seen the entire thing, but she paid attention when Jensen spoke about it and brought all of that love for the show into it as an executive producer.
“I kept driving home the love story of this. Because that’s what I’ve heard him say over and over again,” Danneel said. “Supernatural is not loved because it’s a show about monsters, but because it’s a show about brothers. This to us seemed like following another love story and not just John and Mary, but there are other characters, and when you see the gang together. You also see that love between Carlos and Latika and Mary and all those other relationships, which reminded us a lot of Supernatural because you brought in Castiel and the love that was created there. We have all those similarities.”
We loved the story of Sam and Dean Winchesters and everything they did for each other and to each other. So it’s so heartwarming to see that this will be another love story. It’s not a forbidden love, as Jensen said, but it’s fraught. As you see in the pilot, Mary Campbell wants out of this life, but John Winchester is all in. So that will inevitably make it difficult when they want two different things.
This all came together because Jensen was on a break from filming the final season of Supernatural during Covid, and Danneel and he was talking about what’s next for Supernatural. They believed a spin-off had to have a Winchester in it. Though, they both thought a Castiel spin-off would be fun. “Castiel’s Garrison of Angels.” But it doesn’t sound like Misha Collins would be up for that. So they came up with “how mom met dad.” And filled in the gaps in the story fans already know.
We know The Winchesters is in good hands with Jensen, and especially Danneel, who shares the passion we do for the show. But what’s fun is that now Jensen is an EP, he wants to share things with fans. He announced during the panel that Tom Welling would be playing Sam and Dean’s grandfather, Samuel Campbell. He also looked over to Robbie Thompson about revealing something else, and Robbie said, “you are an EP now.” So he told us that Richard Speight Jr. (who played Gabriel in the original series) was directing the current episode of The Winchesters. Just so much Supernatural DNA is going into the prequel, and Jensen hopes to bring more people back. This will be an exciting next chapter for the Supernatural franchise.
Watch the full interview:
