The announcement of a Supernatural prequel series, The Winchesters, created real-life drama when Jared Padalecki expressed his shock and hurt over not being involved in or even informed of the project. Supernatural ran for a staggering 15 seasons on The WB and The CW, finally coming to an end last year with the series finale, "Carry On."
The Winchesters will be executive produced by Supernatural star Jensen Ackles and his wife, Danneel Ackles, through their company Chaos Machine Productions, and written by former Supernatural co-executive producer Robbie Thompson. The series will focus on Sam and Dean's parents, John and Mary Winchester, with Ackles reprising his role as Dean to narrate the story. The announcement was welcomed with excitement by Supernatural fans, but Padalecki had quite a different reaction.
Responding to the announcement on Twitter, Padalecki wrote that he was happy for Ackles, but added, "Wish I heard about this some way other than Twitter. I’m excited to watch, but bummed that Sam Winchester had no involvement whatsoever." When asked by fans if he was serious about not knowing that The Winchesters had been in the works, he confirmed, "This is the first I’ve heard about it. I’m gutted." Though Padalecki is currently the star of a new CW show, Walker, he has said that he would "abso-f**king-lutely" reprise his role as Sam Winchester if given the opportunity to do so. With that in mind, it's understandable that he would be upset by Ackles setting up a Supernatural prequel and returning as Dean without also inviting Padalecki to return as Sam - or at least giving him a heads-up before the show was publicly announced.
Ackles and Padalecki's Supernatural co-star, Misha Collins, responded in good humor, tweeting, "Seems like this show would benefit from a time-traveling angel-in-a-trenchcoat character." For a while there was some uncertainty over whether's Padalecki's statements were a joke or not, since it was surprising to see one of the Supernatural stars hash out personal drama in the extremely public forum of Twitter. However, it appears that Padalecki's expression of hurt was entirely sincere. The actor updated fans on Twitter the following day, explaining that he and Ackles had talked privately and there was no bad blood.
"Jensen Ackles and I had a great talk, as we do often, and things are good. The show is early in the process with miles to go. We’ve travelled a lot of roads together, and sometimes those damn roads have bumps. Bumps don’t stop us. Once brothers, always brothers."
The comment about The Winchesters being "early in the process with miles to go" indicates that Ackles intended to invite Padalecki to become involved or reprise his role as Sam, but was waiting until the script commitment had been secured first. The prequel series may well end up including Padalecki either as another narrator of the story, or in cameo appearances, so there's hope for a Winchester family reunion yet.