The Winchesters boss discusses the Supernatural prequel's first monster
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Warning: This post contains spoilers from the premiere of The Winchesters.
From its very opening scene, The Winchesters set itself apart from Supernatural. How, you ask? With an insect-esque monster unlike anything Supernatural fans had ever seen. And by episode's end, John (Drake Rodger) and Mary (Meg Donnelly) had come face-to-face with a loup-garou.
"One of the things that we talked about was how can we introduce something that hadn't been seen before," showrunner Robbie Thompson says of the premiere's creatures. "It was kind of also just a proof of concept of what we wanted to do with the show was, 'How could we shine a light on new corners of the Supernatural universe that maybe just hadn't been brought to light on the mothership?'"
Matt Miller/The CW Meg Donnelly and Drake Rodger in 'The Winchesters'
Thompson, who also wrote on Supernatural for a handful of seasons, says, "I know that for a lot of people, you hear about a show running for 15 years and 327 episodes, but there was never a shortage of monsters or ideas."
So when Thompson came on board the prequel, which tells the love story ofJohn and Mary, he knew there were plenty more monster stories to be told. "Specifically for this one we wanted to start with something fresh and new, not something that Supernatural fans had seen," he says. "When you are dealing with characters that an audience has seen before, often times the trap can be: What's the surprise gonna be? How do we keep the monsters fresh?"
Although the first episode's monsters were both something new, Thompson says to expect a mix going forward. "A touch point for us was those early seasons of Supernatural," he continues. "We will have a big bad for the season, but we're going to do some classic monsters of the week. It's one of the many things that Supernatural did so incredibly well, so we'll be doing a lot of new and fun monsters, but you will see some old favorites in that regard." As for the premiere's loup-garou, he repeats, "This monster was kind of a proof of concept for us, it looks familiar but it has a fresh coat of paint on it."
As for the big mystery of the season — where in Supernatural's timeline does this story take place in order for Dean (Jensen Ackles) to narrate it? — Thompson says those answers will come. "Where Dean is in the timeline will be fully explained, it is something we want to unpack over the course of the season. I will say that there are some Easter eggs for fans to pick up on in the pilot that will point them in the direction that we're headed."
The Winchesters airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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