It’s been a year and a half since we said goodbye to Sam and Dean Winchester, and the brothers completed their journeys on Supernatural after 15 seasons. With the Supernatural universe coming back with a prequel that has been ordered to series by The CW with Jensen Ackles as executive producer and narrator, fans will be able to experience the story of John and Mary Winchester before they had their sons in The Winchesters. Ackles has opened up about just how the new series is different from the original.
Jensen Ackles spoke to TV Insider about his busy life post-Supernatural, including The Winchesters prequel series. The Boys star revealed one major difference between the prequel and original show, and that is the cinematography of it all:
With The Winchesters, we needed [it to be] different from the blue-gray of [Supernatural, which was shot in Vancouver] — it’s going to have an amber feel. We’re using vintage anamorphic lenses, so it’s more cinematic and a different texture than we’re used to seeing on the mothership.
Supernatural was pretty dark in terms of storytelling and overall lighting, with monsters and demons and frequent deaths. It will be interesting to see how The Winchesters does things in a different light, especially with it set in a different time period.
Not only will it look different, but it’s not actually shot where its predecessor was. The pilot episode was shot in New Orleans, as opposed to Vancouver, where Supernatural and numerous CW shows have filmed. Ackles explains why they decided to film in NOLA and what the process has been like:
We’d like to keep it down here for a couple of reasons. It’s a period piece set in the early ’70s, and there’s architecture here that looks like towns from the [past]. And you have the NOLA vibe. It’s written into the pilot script that they go there on a case and go to Lafayette Cemetery, so we’re actually going to be [filming at] real crypts. The past two days, we’ve shot at an old Civil War fort that looks like someone spent a ton of money building it, but it is very real.
Not only does filming in NOLA work with the tone and vibe of the series, but the city also has some close connections for the Ackles family. One Tree Hill alum and Jensen Ackles’ wife and production partner Danneel Ackles grew up in Lafayette, LA, and got her name from a street in New Orleans. Seeing how the series looks shot in New Orleans with Supernatural shot in Vancouver will be something fun to look forward to, despite fans maybe hoping for some SPN location Easter eggs.
Meanwhile, along with those filming differences, there will also be added elements to the storytelling as a whole. Jensen Ackles recently opened up about how The Winchesters will connect to Supernatural, despite some of the background on the prequel series being different from what was established in the original series. The actor mentioned how they will be touching on already-established points in a different way that viewers won’t be expecting and showing how the story of John and Mary really happened.
The cast for the upcoming series includes Zombies star Meg Donnelly as Mary Campbell and The In Between’s Drake Rodger as John Winchester. Legacies alum Bianca Kajilich will portray Sam and Dean’s paternal grandmother, a character fans never got to meet in Supernatural. Fans will surely be excited to dig deeper into the hunting side of the Campbells and the Men of Letters side of the Winchesters that we never really got to see.
As of now, there is no premiere date for The Winchesters, but with The CW’s Upfronts scheduled to take place Thursday morning, it’s possible that we’ll know then whether or not the series will be part of the fall lineup following a recent slew of cancellations that took out Legacies, among others. Check out CinemaBlend’s 2022 TV schedule to see what shows to watch in the meantime.
