Supernatural is set to return in the fall for Season 13, and we already know that the show is going to look very different. With one major character definitively gone and another's fate currently unknown, we're in for a new kind of status quo. As it turns out, the new status quo will make Season 13 the perfect time for a spinoff to finally launch. Showrunner Andrew Dabb revealed at a San Diego Comic-Con press roundtable why now is the time for a Supernatural spinoff:
I think we have been talking about internally since we introduced Claire Novak to the show. Which I believe was Season 9, and the idea that Jody had already taken in Alex Jones, that 'Well this might be a real opportunity to make this happen.' It's kind of something that simmered for us and fans really latched onto in a way that we never could've expected in a really awesome way, and then for us it was like, last season because of the British Men of Letters and because of Mom and everything like that, it didn't feel right. This season it feels right and the way it's going, as you'll see it as you watch the show in the first half of the season, it evolves very organically out of the first half of the season in a way that we were able to do because we have such a high amount of lead time. And it feels like, unlike the first spinoff we did, which was by design made not to feel like Supernatural, this is meant to feel like Supernatural, but a different side of stories in that world but very much the same sensibilities, the same driving forces, the same core themes, which are family.
For the first time in a while, there will simply be enough room in the story for Supernatural to do justice to launching a spinoff. Andrew Dabb and the team behind the scenes will be able to do more than simply cram everything together for a one-and-done backdoor pilot; they will be able to build a new dynamic that can sustain a show of its own without feeling unconnected to the series that has won so many fans over the past decade.
The new spinoff will be fittingly called Wayward Sisters, and it will be comprised of characters Supernatural fans have already come to know and love over a span of many years. Sheriff-turned-hunter Jody Mills will be the protagonist, and she'll lead a group of young women who lost their families in supernatural tragedies. Kim Rhodes will reprise the role of Jody, along with other returning actresses Kathryn Newton as Claire Novak, Katherine Ramdeen as Alex Jones, and Briana Buckmaster as Sheriff Donna Hanscum. This crew of Supernatural veterans will be joined by newcomer Clark Backo, who will play Patience Turner, and together they'll hunt monsters as one badass group.
All things considered, Wayward Sisters already sounds like it will appeal to Supernatural fans much more than the first spinoff attempt did back in Season 9. In the first backdoor pilot designed to launch a spinoff, Sam and Dean discovered five mafia-esque monster families in Chicago. The characters who would anchor the spinoff were brand new to the Supernatural universe, and fans had no real reason to grow attached to them. That spinoff never made it to series.
If Wayward Sisters gets the series order from The CW, the odds are pretty good that we'll get semi-frequent crossovers with Supernatural. The characters have close ties with each other, and we can bet that the Winchesters have a lot of lore that could be useful to the ladies. We'll have to wait and see.
Supernatural will return to The CW in the fall, with the Wayward Sisters backdoor pilot airing at some point later in the season. Check out our summer TV schedule for what you can watch in the meantime. If you're not up on what shows will be back, take a look at our breakdowns of the renewals and cancellations of network TV and cable/streaming.
