Meg Donnelly and Drake Rodger have been cast in the lead roles of CW’s The Winchesters drama pilot, intended as a prequel series to Supernatural centring on Mary Campbell and John Winchester, aka Sam and Dean’s parents.

Donnelly and Rodger will respectively star as Mary and John; The Winchesters is the epic, mostly-untold love story of how the two met, and how they put everything on the line to not only save their love but the entire world. The two characters appeared in various forms throughout Supernatural’s 15-season run: Mary was previously portrayed by both Samantha Smith and Amy Gumenick, and John by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Matt Cohen.

 

In The Winchesters, at just 19 years old, Mary Campbell has been fighting the forces of darkness since she was a child. After losing someone close to her, the hardened hunter considers quitting the family business — until her father Samuel’s disappearance and the arrival of newcomer John Winchester forces her to lead a new team. John, meanwhile, is recently returned from Vietnam. He finds a new mission back home, where traces of his own father Henry’s past lead him to a secret organisation and a whole new war as a hunter.

The series will be told from the perspective of narrator Dean Winchester, voiced by Jensen Ackles. The project also hails from him, Robbie Thompson and Danneel Ackles. Supergirl’s Glen Winter will direct and executive produce the pilot.

Donnelly is a former Disney star best known for leading the comedy series American Housewife, while Rodger was last seen in Paramount’s The In Between.