Warning: The following contains Tuesday’s spoilers The Winchesters Premiere. Proceed at your own risk!
John and Mary certainly have work ahead of them after the premiere of The Winchesters, which told a very different story about how Dean and Sam’s parents met than what viewers heard on Supernatural.
During the episode, John returned from the Vietnam War and literally met Mary outside a movie theater showing Slaughterhouse Five. It wasn’t long before a letter from his MIA father led him to the Men of Letters’ abandoned bunker and an encounter with Mary, who informed him of the existence of demons. But it’s the presence of a monster named Akrida that’s far more troubling for our new Scooby gang. Described as a malevolent, otherworldly force, the Akrida have been attempting to invade for centuries and seek to wipe out all, including demons and monsters, from our world. And Mary’s father went missing while looking for a box capable of killing the Akrida.
“What they didn’t know was that the Akrida were a threat not just to Earth, but to all of existence,” Dean writes in a journal at the end of the pilot. “Like I said, there will be some surprises. Heck, I’m still trying to find all the puzzle pieces myself. But I will explain everything. And until then, I’ll keep choosing the music.”
Below, showrunner Robbie Thompson answers our burning questions about Dean’s mysterious whereabouts, what the episode’s Supernatural nods mean, and how often we’ll see executive producer/narrator Jensen Ackles.
TVLINE | We see Dean writing in his journal at the end of the pilot and driving away in his car. Where is he in relation to the Supernatural timeline? Is that before he died?
Where Dean is is a mystery for now. We’ve given some clues in some of the graphics which I think some fans have already picked up and have some theories as to where he is. But we will definitely clarify where this handsome young man is in relation to the last few seasons of Supernatural.
TVLINE | I also thought there was a possibility that he might be writing this from heaven.
These are all wonderful theories that I can neither confirm nor deny. But we’re going to solve that 100 percent in our first 13 episodes.
TVLINE | They basically introduced a supernatural multiverse in the later seasons of the show. We found out that there are other Earths with other Sams and Deans which led me to confirm that this is John and Mary that we know from our Earth.
[Laughs] I’m trying to be very politically correct here… That’s a wonderful question. I think what I want to say to both your readers and you and all viewers is that I will neither confirm nor deny anything as far as people’s theories are on the table, but I will say that we will solve everyone’s Questions and concerns by the end of the first 13 [episodes].
It’s not just about being shy and reserved and things like that. I’m a big fan of letting stories unfold on their own. I understand that there are people who are concerned and want to make sure we don’t go for continuity and I 100 percent understand that concern and all I can say is that we will not undo anything and will not delete anything change something, frankly, if we’ve done our job right. But how we do that will remain a mystery for now. I promise we’ll work out any questions, but for now it’s just a matter of going on the journey with us and seeing where we go.
TVLINE | Does Jensen tell in every episode?
You’ll hear the incredible voice of Dean Winchester in every episode.
TVLINE | However, I suspect we won’t see him in every episode.
We won’t be able to see him in every episode. Jensen is calm [busy]. But we will hear him. One of the really wonderful perks of this job is when we get to that part of a script, you can say, “I wonder what Dean would say?” and then I can just text Dean Winchester and talk to him. Jensen is a wonderful partner because he can both play the story and think about the future. We go over [the voiceovers] Word by word, letter by letter, and really designing them together. I’m just really happy that people are hearing that voice again. I know for me it was like “holy smoke!” We needed a temporary piece to figure out what to cut to and we shot and he sent it to me and it was a recording – I still have it on my phone – of him doing an early version of one of those voiceovers, and it was the voice, you know? [Laughs] At that moment, it was Dean Winchester in my earbuds, and it was like one of those real pinch me moments. Like, “Wow, this is really happening. We will do it.”
TVLINE | Speaking of voices, is that Gil McKinney we heard reading Henry’s letter?
Yes, this is 100 percent Gil McKinney. Gil is a wonderful person [and] a great actor, and one of the fun things about working in this world was finding out who we might be able to work with again. He was just a great partner and he came in and recorded that for us. He was great.
TVLINE | Are there any other Supernatural actors/guest stars from the original series?
Absolutely. We’ll see some supernatural faces. I can’t say who yet, but in the back of our first 13 episodes you’ll definitely see some familiar faces that I’m really, really looking forward to.
TVLINE | Can you talk a little bit about what you have in store for Big Bad and what we can expect as the season progresses?
We were really looking for something to differentiate ourselves from Supernatural, something we hadn’t seen before. Obviously there are some demons in the pilot, and we’ve been dealing with demons a lot on Supernatural. But we were really excited to find a new monster, a new Big Bad, and even try to find some new monsters for our heroes to fight as the episodes progressed. Honestly, a big part of it was just how we differentiate ourselves from the mothership, give our heroes something to fight against, that’s more personal to their story, and to this new group outside of just Mary and John that they represent have to tackle the season?
TVLINE | What should we read into the movie tent showing Slaughterhouse-Five?
[Laughs] That we’ve done our homework. I know this has also been a source of some theories. Again, I can neither confirm nor deny, but obviously that was the story Dean tells his mother [on Supernatural] to prove he knows a thing or two about her. I think that was in season 12. It was just to kind of evoke that, and it was one of those moments where we hear about it on the mother ship but then we never see it, and to see it… Glen Winter, who shot the pilot, did a nice job of revealing it visually. We were shooting in a little town called Amite, just about an hour from New Orleans, and the whole street is decked out like it was in 1972, and the camera comes up for this reveal, and it was really, really exciting. It was kind of like stepping into history and I was literally wearing a Slaughterhouse Five t-shirt that I brought for the occasion. [Laughs]
What do you think of the Winchesters? Rate the premiere below, then hit the comments!