Produced by Supernatural actor Jensen Ackles, 44, the series will follow John Winchester (Drake Rodger) and Mary Campbell (Meg Donnelly), parents of Dean (Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki), and how they came to fall in love and fight monsters together.
At New York Comic Con on Sunday, Ackles took to the stage alongside the show’s cast to discuss the spinoff, and he revealed the addition of one new member.
‘The Winchesters’ Cast: Which Actor Is Joining the ‘Supernatural’ Prequel?
Ackles announced at the convention that Tom Welling, 45, will be appearing in The Winchesters in a recurring role as Samuel Campbell.
The character was originally played by Mitch Pileggi, 70, in Supernatural. Samuel is Dean and Sam’s maternal grandfather and so represents an important part of the story both in the original CW series and in the prequel.
Welling should already be familiar to fans for his role as Clark Kent in Smallville, a show that Ackles starred in for 22 episodes.
Deadline reported that Welling’s character is “gruff and pragmatic, he’s a veteran Hunter who prefers actions over words—and it’s always his way or the highway.
“But when Samuel teams up with Mary and her friends to save the world, he won’t only have to defeat the most dangerous monster he’s ever faced—he’ll also have to mend his broken relationship with his daughter.”
The actor is expected to make his debut in The Winchesters in episode seven, though it has not yet revealed how regular his appearance in the show will be after that.
The Winchesters showrunner Robbie Thompson told Deadline of the casting: “When we were discussing casting the iconic character of Samuel Campbell, everyone felt it had to be someone who could step into the role and provide instant gravitas and history.
“Jensen and Danneel [Ackles, executive producer] brought up the idea of Tom Welling, and the second his name was mentioned, we all knew he was the perfect person for the part. Tom is a fantastic actor and wonderful human, and we are so excited to be welcoming him to The Winchesters and the Supernatural family.”
The Winchesters premieres on The CW on Tuesday and in a virtual press panel, according to TVLine, Thompson also said that fans of Supernatural would see “some very familiar faces” in a future episode.
Thompson said these stars would be “in an episode we’re going to shoot in a couple of days. And then some more that I can’t even reveal.”
He added: “We also have plans not just to bring back some of our familiar faces, but younger versions of the characters that maybe we haven’t seen yet.”
The Winchesters premieres at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.
