‘The Winchesters’: Meg Donnelly & Drake Rodger on Prequel’s Similarity to Early ‘Supernatural’ (VIDEO)

Supernatural fans know the story of Mary and John Winchester… or so they think. That’s where the upcoming prequel, The Winchesters, which includes vets from the original series such as Jensen Ackles (who also reprises his role as Dean and narrates) and Danneel Ackles as executive producers and Robbie Thompson as the showrunner, comes in.

Meg Donnelly and Drake Rodger are stepping into the roles of Mary Campbell and John Winchester, and they share their excitement about doing so in the video interview above. As Rodger notes, he went through nine different chemistry tests (totaling about 22 hours) during the audition process. It wasn’t as many for Donnelly, but she says, “when I read with Drake, it just felt so natural and just amazing to me, so I was really, really hoping we would get paired together.”

The Mary we meet is “definitely badass,” Donnelly shares.  She is a strong, independent woman who knows exactly what she wants.” Meanwhile, John is “an altruistic, through-and-through soldier boy, good boy, like All American guy who’s back from Vietnam and is struggling with everything that that entails while also figuring out life and then on top of that learning about the supernatural,” Rodger previews.

The Winchesters is set to show “the epic love story” for Mary and John, and on his part, “there’s immediate intrigue,” as well as some “love at first sight feelings,” according to Rodger. And meeting John does lead Mary to feel “torn because she definitely feels a connection towards John,” Donnelly adds. Her plan is to find her dad, who’s missing (“it’s very similar to Season 1 of Supernatural,” she says) and will be played by Tom Welling (as was announced at New York Comic Con), then quit hunting. John, too, will be focused on finding his father and the world of the supernatural, which is new to him.

And what about some world-saving? Watch the video interview with Donnelly and Rodger for that answer and more about The Winchesters.

The Winchesters, Series Premiere, Tuesday, October 11, 8/7c, The CW