Even though Supernatural went on for 15 seasons, I think all of us knew that someday, somehow, it would be back. Little did we know that a year later, series star Jensen Ackles, his wife Danneel Ackles, and Supernatural EP Robbie Thompson would be returning to the world of saving people and hunting things by developing The Winchesters.
The Winchesters premieres tonight (October 11) at 8PM ET/PT on The CW, and it goes back to a time before Supernatural’s story began. It’s the story of John Winchester and Mary Campbell… or as Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) calls them in the voiceover, “Mom and Dad.” On Supernatural, we had seen John and Mary before – first with actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Smith, and later in flashbacks with Matt Cohen and Amy Gumenick, including in the episode “In The Beginning” where Dean interacts with his parents in the past.
Stories like “In The Beginning” might give die-hard fans some hesitation: After all, there’s no way that this can match up with the continuity, right? I am a bit relieved to hear that Ackles knows so much about the show because he was there, but also, I was happy to read that the Supernatural Wiki’s Jules Wilkinson was brought on as an advisor, because she has been a keeper of the lore for so long.
Supernatural launched in 2015 with a pilot episode directed by the premier pilot director, David Nutter. For years, if Nutter helmed the pilot, it would be good, and it would also get picked up. Winchesters Director Glen Winter has proven himself to be a bit of a modern-day successor to that – especially where it comes to the world of DC Comics, where he directed the pilots of Doom Patrol, Supergirl, Stargirl, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Full disclosure: I’ve known Glen Winter since meeting him at Smallville over fifteen years ago, and I’m so impressed by what he can do. The pilot of The Winchesters is moody, and scary, and at some points, fun, all while maintaining a consistent tone and genre. It’s also fantastically colored and lit… I can only hope that future episodes look as good as this first one did.
As TV’s newest John Winchester, I don’t see yet how Drake Rodger would grow to be as tough as Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s interpretation, but perhaps that’s what this journey will be about. For now, Rodger gives off a performance that is a little bit Ackles’ Dean combined with Jared Padalecki‘s Sam. It’s comfortable. I would think with his history of being in the war that he would be a bit tougher, but perhaps we’ll learn why he is such a rookie when we meet him here. Meg Donnelly‘s Mary Campbell is, of course, not a rookie, and she is the kind of young TV heroine on a level of Buffy or Faith. I like seeing them side-by-side though I’m not seeing romantic sparks yet, but what I do like is here we have a guy and a girl doing some of the things Dean and Sam would do back in the day… but of course by not having it be two guys, it’s not trying to replace those two, which would be impossible. In any event, I see great things coming from both Drake and Meg as this series goes on.
With no offense to those two, though, my two favorite characters in this series are Carlos (Jonathan “JoJo” Fleites) and Latika (Nida Khurshid). Carlos exudes a level of 1970s “cool” and confidence that I’m really interested in seeing more of, and Latika is the brains of the operation. I won’t lie, I know how this story ends, but I would be totally down with a John/Latika or John/Carlos pairing because both characters have so much chemistry with everyone (though Carlos really seems to irritate Mary). Carlos and Latika also have the “Chloe Sullivan” factor. No, that doesn’t mean they’ll end up in a cult; it means that they are characters in a prequel story where we don’t know where they end up, so we as an audience are kept in suspense as to where they disappeared to between now and Supernatural. I’m also very curious about Ada (Demetria McKinney), who we don’t get to learn a lot about quite yet, but she seems to be an important part of what’s going on here. I also am curious how Millie Winchester (the always enjoyable Bianca Kajlich) will react once she sees how deep John will get into all of this. Will he suffer the same fate as her husband did, and disappear from her life seemingly forever?
There are Easter eggs for Supernatural fans to find, some blatant and others maybe not so obvious. I hope the show isn’t full of anvils but it’s playing it well so far.
Admittedly, I have not seen all 327 episodes of Supernatural, despite covering it for many years, so I might not run into the same issues that fans might see if certain things don’t add up, but for a newcomer, this is a chance to get in on this world from the ground floor. Of course, I’d love to see elements and characters from the original series pop into this world, but I’m excited to hop in from the start, not to mention curious if we’ll ever see something like “In The Beginning” but from John or Mary’s perspective. Best of all, though, I finished this pilot with a strong desire to see what happens next.
The Winchesters premieres tonight (October 11) on The CW.
