CW’S ‘The Winchesters’ explores the origin of the ‘Supernatural’ clan
Before Sam and Dean Winchester in “Supernatural,” there were their parents John and Mary. And the epic story of how they put their love and lives on the line to save the world is told in a prequel series coming to The CW.
In “The Winchesters,” premiering Tuesday, Oct. 11, it’s 1969 and John Winchester (Drake Rodger, “Murder RX”) has just returned to his Kansas hometown after fighting in Vietnam. He’s haunted by the death of a comrade and PTSD but that’s nothing compared to the otherworldly experience he has that sparks him to trace his father’s past.
In his journeys, he crosses paths with Mary (Meg Donnelly, “American Housewife”), a 19-year-old demon hunter who is also trying to learn more about her own father’s disappearance. Together, they join forces with young hunter-in-training Latika (Nida Khurshid, “Station 19”) and quirky hunter Carlos (newcomer Jojo Fleites) to learn the truth about their families.
The series was developed by Robbie Thompson (“Supernatural”) and counts among its executive producers Jensen Ackles, who played Dean Winchester in the original 2005-2020 CW series and served as an invaluable resource for Rodger in creating the character of John Winchester.
“I think with John,” the actor explains, “where I started with that is: What in my life can I bring to this character that resonates with the pain of losing a father at a young age, with growing up with only a mother in the ‘50s and ‘60s where your mother was supposed to be a motherly figure to you back then and she was much more of a father? So what would it be like to grow up without having an empathetic figure around?”
Another challenge for Rodger was in matching the character to the older John played early in “Supernatural” by Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
“What can get really constricting playing a preexisting character,” he says, “is having to play within the realm of what’s already been established. And we’re doing that, it’s just that we’re giving ourselves a lot more artistic freedom by choosing the contrasts, basically. Where do we want to start him at and show his transition into who he ends up being? Which actually I think is a lot of fun because I don’t really have to paint who he ends up being. The fans already know that.”
“I was just trying to deconstruct Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character,” he continues, “which has been a lot of fun because I’ve never played the younger version of anyone. So instead of just creating a lot of stuff, it’s been cool to deconstruct his character and just pull from like, ‘Oh, he has this trait’ so I can show where he got that trait from.”