The demon-hunting, angel-slaying adventure known as Supernatural only just aired its series final back in November, and with a lot of mixed feelings even from the cast and crew who made the decision to wrap up the story of the brothers Winchester with the end of Season 15. It was just yesterday, though, that we heard series star Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) and his wife Danneel (who played Sister Jo / Anael in Seasons 13 -15), were already working on a prequel spinoff, The Winchesters. While this has surely made fans very happy, it seems that his on-screen brother, Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester) was blindsided by the news.
Here's what's happening. After the news broke last night that Jensen and Danneel Ackles were set to executive produce The Winchesters, with former co-executive producer Robbie Thompson also on the team as an executive producer and writer, Jared Padalecki took to Twitter to announce his happiness for his former, long-time co-star. But, he also revealed to everyone that he, apparently, had no idea the Ackles were even working on this potential show, which currently has a script commitment at The CW. This is what Padalecki said:
Eeeeeeegaaaaaad. Are you cringing? Because I know that every time I look at this tweet from Jared Padalecki, I cringe...a lot. Honestly, I kinda wish I could just type in emojis right now, because I believe there are several which would perfectly sum up how it feels to witness a potential public breakdown of trust between Sam and Dean's portrayers.
One of the things fans adored about Supernatural wasn't just the ride-and-die-until-we-come-back-to-life relationship between the Winchester brothers, but how the friendship between Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles felt like it had, over their many years on the freaky, creepy series, turned into something similar. They often spoke about how close they were in real life, so you can probably imagine that hearing that one of them seemingly decided to head back into Supernatural land without the knowledge of the other, has led to a lot of fan concern.
Well, prepare yourselves, because when one fan noted that The Winchesters and all of this must be a joke, Padalecki responded:
Again, I'm...not quite OK with this. But, as noted previously, this is the same awkward reaction that many fans are dealing with right now. It's like you're best friends with two other best friends and something has possibly gone down between them, because now they're acting funky around each other. You try to smooth things out, joke around, and lighten the mood, but nothing works because WTF IS GOING ON WITH JARED AND JENSEN?!?!
Another part of the potential issue here seems to be the fact that, aside from not having heard anything about The Winchesters prior to the news coming out, Jared Padalecki's Sam isn't set to be a part of the new story at all. The show will focus on the love story of Sam and Dean's parents, Mary and John, and how they came and stuck together while saving the world repeatedly. While Ackles is already executive producing the project, he's also slated to narrate the story as his Supernatural character, Dean.
Is it possible that Jared Padalecki simply forgot Jensen Ackles' mention of The Winchesters at some point? Sure, seeing as how he has been hard at work on Walker for several months and is heading into Season 2 on the hit. The Supernatural dudes have also been known to joke around a lot, so, with the knowledge that fans would go batty about a Supernatural-adjacent project that involves Ackles but not Padalecki, could all of this be trolling? Also possible, but there are two more things we should consider.
After Jared Padalecki's second tweet saying this wasn't a joke, he fired off another directed at Robbie Thompson (remember that Thompson worked on Supernatural and is now also working on The Winchesters), which has since been deleted. According to TVLine, that tweet said:
Et tu brute? Wow. What a truly awful thing you’ve done. #Bravo you coward.
Wow. Who can really say whether or not that tweet was deleted because Jared Padalecki was aware it truly showed how angry he is about The Winchesters, or if it was taken down because this is all a long-con of a gag aimed at fans, and he simply realized that went too far for a joke. Either way, before his Twitterstorm, Supernatural mastermind Eric Kripke had already stepped in, in an attempt to calm the waters (or add fuel to the joke fire), and noted:
When @JensenAckles first told me this story, I loved it. He & @DanneelHarris & @rthompson1138 are the perfect people to make it. (The other perfect person is too busy Texas Rangering.) Thanks for carrying the torch, guys, go kick it in the ass. Proud of you. #SPN #SPNFamily.
I have no idea what to think anymore, you guys. Hopefully, if this is all a joke, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles will reveal that soon enough to stop Supernatural fans from spinning out. But, if the apparently very heated emotions are real, I hope even more that they can work out whatever is going on and get back to being bros. Where's Cas when you need him to help heal a family dispute? (I'm kidding. Misha Collins, sir? Don't you dare get yourself involved in this!)
