Jensen Ackles Reveals His Favorite Overlooked Storyline In Supernatural

Jensen Ackles has been talking about Supernatural lately with a new project in the works and he revealed his favorite overlooked story arc

By Doug Norrie | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

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Jensen Ackles played Dean Winchester on Supernatural for 15 seasons, spanning a decade-and-a-half in one of the true feel-good stories about a series being able to stay on the air. And in that time, the Supernatural covered a ton of different story angles, building out an entire world around the Winchester brothers and the folks (both human and not) that they met along the way. So you would think that in that time the group would have come away satisfied with all the work they did and the ground they covered. But recently Ackles opened up about a specific thread and arc from Supernatural that he would have liked to have seen more from. 

While appearing on the podcast Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum (via Screenrant), the CW alums discussed a number of different topics around Supernatural, both with where it’s going and where it has already been. During the talk, Rosenbaum asked Jensen Ackles if there were “peripheral storylines” from the series that Ackles would have liked to dive further on. These are always the best questions because even with a series like this that lasted longer than most other programs out on the airwaves, there are things that just might not have been given enough run. Ackles clearly has thought about this and had an interesting answer. 

“I would say one that I truly love that I wish we would have gotten to play a bit more with was Dean in purgatory with Benny and Cass. I thought that was – It was just shot differently, it felt different, it was a different kind of world we were in, we were fighting for survival. It was this like this post-apocalyptic feel to it. We were just covered in blood and mud, and it just, it had a different feel, and I enjoyed that.”

The Purgatory storyline that Jensen Ackles is referring to starts to come up during Season 6 of Supernatural with the introduction of Archangel Raphael was using souls from there. But in Season 7, the Winchester brothers do find themselves in purgatory. They ultimately had to escape, with references back to that time used in subsequent seasons. During the escape, assisted by Castiel in the fight against the Leviathans, Dean does come away with another soul. 

Though Supernatural lasted 15 seasons, it would seem there are more stories to tell in this universe. That’s because Jensen Ackles is working to produce a prequel series, this one based on Sam and Dean’s parents. It will be about John and Mary and how their initial love story formed the basis around how Supernatural was ultimately built. Ackles had talked about creating the show and why, early on, he hadn’t let co-star Jared Padalecki in on the plan. Saying he didn’t want to “jinx” it during negotiations, the pair only discussed the prequel after it had been announced that it was headed for a series order. 

And that’s not all that’s going on for Jensen Ackles. He’s also set to have a big role in the upcoming third season of Amazon’s The Boys. He’ll be playing Soldier Boy, a Captain America knock-off who has some interesting relationships with the rest of the Seven. He’s the leader of the group called Payback and considering that’s the name of the first episode of the upcoming season, it stands to reason Ackles is a major part of the storyline. 

Maybe when he brings The Winchesters out as a full series, Jensen Ackles will be able to tug more on those stories involving Purgatory. Considering that’s an aspect he liked, and it’s still relatively in the same world, there are chances to do just this kind of thing.