The Season 1 finale of the prequel series The Winchesters uses Jensen Ackles’ beloved Dean Winchester to introduce the Supernatural multiverse.
After months of speculation, The Winchesters was confirmed to take place in a separate timeline within the Supernatural multiverse during its Season 1 finale.
The Winchesters Season 1, Episode 13, “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,” featured the return of Jensen Ackles’ Dean Winchester, with the beloved character revealing that the Supernatural prequel series does not exist on the same timeline that the mothership series spent 15 seasons building out. Instead, The Winchesters takes place in a universe where Dean believes his parents have a real shot at a happy ending. Speaking with TVLine, showrunner Robbie Thompson explained how everyone involved with The Winchesters “had no interest in upending anything, for lack of a better expression, past, present or future of Supernatural,” leading to the decision to set the prequel in its own universe.
Despite The Winchesters taking place in an alternate reality, Ackles’ Dean is the same one from Supernatural, which Thompson explained was a distinction that allowed the writers to craft an emotional story arc for the fan-favorite character. “We’re only a few years away from, I’m going to call it, the For-Now Finale, because, hopefully, there will be more story own the road… Obviously, the idea of the multiverse was pretty one-stop shopping, in terms of that coming up pretty quickly,” he said. “And then again, it was a question of, ‘Will this still be an emotional story for Dean?’ And it felt like we had a really interesting opportunity to tell a story with Dean’s character, even though he wouldn’t be necessarily in every single episode.”
He continued. “There were dozens of ways to make it work, but this one felt like the one that would feel the most emotional, without obviously upending anything, and it felt like a story that we could tell about Dean, about where he is at when we meet him in, technically, the pilot, but throughout the finale of our first season.”
Winchesters Showrunner Previously Teased Supernatural’s Multiverse
While Supernatural had explored the multiverse in its later seasons, Thompson had in past interviews tiptoed around the possibility that The Winchesters existed in one of those alternate universes. “I’m neither going to confirm nor deny any theories, but I will say that we will resolve everybody’s questions and concerns by the end of the first 13 [episodes],” Thompson said back in October 2022.
At the time of writing, The CW has not picked up The Winchesters for a second season. While The Winchesters is part of a popular franchise, its renewal odds have diminished following Nexstar Media Group’s acquisition of the controlling interest in The CW. Nexstar has indicated that it wants to run The CW more cost-consciously, which includes smaller production budgets as well as a greater focus on unscripted programming and syndicated content. Despite the uncertainty, Thompson has promised fans that they will shop The Winchesters to other networks and streaming sites should The CW ultimately decide to cancel the series.
