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'Supernatural' Prequel Series Is In The Works, But No One Told 'Supernatural' Star Jared Padalecki

Supernatural ending
By Ben Pearson/

There's some major drama brewing behind the scenes at The CW. Jensen Ackles, one of the stars of the network's mega-hit genre series Supernatural, is developing a Supernatural prequel series called The Winchesters that he will executive produce alongside his wife, Danneel Ackles.

The problem? Jared Padalecki, who played Jensen's character's brother and co-starred with him for all 15 seasons of the original series, is not only not involved with the new show, but he had no idea this prequel project was in the works at all – he learned about it for the first time when the news made the rounds on Twitter. I guess the idea of "brotherly love" didn't include giving Padalecki a heads up about this.

What is The Winchesters About?

Deadline provided the following synopsis of The Winchesters:

Before Sam and Dean, there was John and Mary. Told from the perspective of narrator Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), The Winchesters is the epic, untold love story of how John met Mary and how they put it all on the line to not only save their love, but the entire world.

"After Supernatural wrapped its 15th season, we knew it wasn't over," Ackles explained in a statement. "Because like we say in the show, 'nothing ever really ends, does it?' When Danneel and I formed Chaos Machine Productions, we knew the first story we wanted to tell was the story of John and Mary Winchester, or rather the Supernatural origin story. I always felt like my character, Dean, would have wanted to know more about his parents' relationship and how it came to be. So I love the thought of having him take us on this journey."

I guess he didn't love the thought of reuniting with his longtime co-star, or even giving him a warning that this news was imminent.

Supernatural veteran Robbie Thompson will serve as an executive producer alongside Jensen and Danneel Ackles.

Considering the Behind-the-Scenes Drama, Will Fans Even Want to Watch This Supernatural Prequel?

"Dude," Padalecki wrote on Twitter. "Happy for you. Wish I heard about this some way other than Twitter. I'm excited to watch, but bummed that Sam Winchester had no involvement whatsoever." In another tweet, he confirmed that this news was not a bad joke, saying, "This is the first I've heard about it. I'm gutted."

And because the state of modern fandom is completely fucked, Padalecki had to issue a follow-up statement begging his fans not to resort to violence. "Hey world," he wrote. "Thank you for the love. Please PLEASE don't send any hate or threats. I care deeply about everybody involved and would be in true misery if any of them were harmed or threatened."

Supernatural has one of the most loyal and vocal fan bases of any genre TV show, and they've spent a decade and a half completely invested not only in the relationship between Ackles' and Padalecki's characters, but the off-screen relationship between the actors themselves. Will a fan base that puts such a high value on loyalty be willing to even give The Winchesters a chance, given how Padalecki was left high and dry? I'm very curious to find out.Update: either there was a brother heart-to-heart, or some publicists exchanged some panicked phone calls, because it looks like the Winchester boys have made up:

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