Supernatural’s Most Underrated Stars Address Returning For Jensen Ackles’ Spinoff
Two fan-favorite characters on the long-running CW series Supernatural have thoughts about the upcoming prequel, and who should be on it.
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Two fan-favorite actors on the long-running CW show Supernatural have weighed in about returning for the hotly anticipated prequel series, and unsurprisingly, they are down for showing up. Richard Speight Jr. and Rob Benedict have jumped aboard the very popular “rewatch podcast” trend and are currently hosting a show called Supernatural Then and Now. They recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly and revealed they are eager to appear on The Winchesters, and as they (probably) jokingly put it, are actually expecting to appear. They are also friends with longtime Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson, who is working on The Winchesters, plus some guy named Jensen Ackles, so it sounds like they might have an In.
Supernatural ran for a staggering 15 seasons on The CW, eventually becoming the longest-running live action fantasy series ever. That’s pretty good for a show that creator Eric Kripke had to retool and shop around to networks for a decade before it was finally greenlit. Those 15 seasons will likely come in handy for the upcoming prequel series, The Winchesters, which will focus on the parents of original stars Sam and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki). Such an overwhelming amount of episodes to reference gives the new series a lot of material to work with, and given the fantasy nature of the show, they have a lot of immortal characters to bring in without worrying about re-casting. In this case, Richard Speight Jr. originally played the Norse God Loki the Trickster (not the MCU guy or a variant), who was revealed to actually be the Archangel Gabriel in disguise, and then he eventually played the actual Loki in addition to Gabriel. For his part, Rob Benedict played a character named Chuck Shurley, who was writing a book series about the Winchester brothers’ adventures, only to turn out to actually be God, who turns out to be the main bad guy. Supernatural was kind of a weird show.
Much like the Office Ladies podcast with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey or Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach Braff and Donald Faison, there is a real market for the former cast members of shows to draw fans. As longtime Supernatural fan-favorites, Richard Speight Jr. and Rob Benedict would definitely work well on The Winchesters, and the show is only beginning to fill out its cast. Newcomers Drake Rodger and Meg Donnelly were recently announced to be portraying the younger versions of the Winchester parents John and Mary (originally played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Smith). Aside from them, the only other confirmed cast members will be Nida Khurshid and Jojo Fleites as entirely original characters; Khurshid will be playing Latika Desai, a demon hunter in training, and Fleites will be Carlos Cervantez, a more experienced hunter described as “a boost of positivity.” There has not yet been an official announcement of when The Winchesters will be premiering, though our best guess is it will be in the latter half of 2022 and likely around Halloween for that boost of spooky energy. We’ll keep you up with The Winchesters and Supernatural news here.
