The CW orders pilots for spin-offs of Supernatural and Walker, plus one about Batman’s son
The Winchester boys are splitting up, Walker is going back in time, and Batman has been murdered
Aux News Supernatural
Some good news for fans of Supernatural… but bad news for fans of Supernatural who are invested in the friendship between stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki: The Supernatural spin-off that Ackles and his wife were developing last year has been given a pilot order by The CW, meaning it’s one step closer to becoming a real TV show. This is also the same Supernatural spin-off, though, that Jared Padalecki apparently knew nothing about until he saw a post about it on Twitter, which means that—as it moves forward—it might continue to sour their relationship.
This all comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which says the show, titled The Winchesters, is about John Winchester, the father of Supernatural heroes Sam and Dead, and the “epic, untold love story” between him and the duo’s mother. Ackles, as Dean, will narrate the project if it gets picked up.
But it’s not all bad news for Padalecki, as The CW has also ordered a pilot for Walker: Independence, a spin-off of the former Supernatural star’s new show that takes place in the 19th century and centers on an ancestor of Walker the Texas Ranger named Abby Walker. When her husband is murdered, she moves to Olde Timey Texas on a mission of revenge. Padalecki probably won’t be seen in this one, but he is executive producing.
Unrelated to either of them, and also, as bizarre as it is, unrelated to anything else on The CW or the video game that shares its name, we have Gotham Knights. It comes from Batwoman writers Chad Fiveash, James Stoteraux, and Natalie Abrams, but it’s part of its own distinct continuity separate from the Arrowverse. THR says it takes place after Bruce Wayne has been murdered, with his “rebellious adopted son” (Damien Wayne, we assume) teaming up with “the children of Batman’s enemies” after they all get framed for the kill.
You’ve heard of Baby Yoda, but how about Baby Joker? Baby Clayface? Baby Penguin? (Aww, a baby penguin!) Anyway, it’s a premise that’s not totally out of line with what you’d expect from a Batman story, but it is strange that it’s not part of the Arrowverse canon and shares the name with a video game that Warner Bros. has been teasing for several years. We’ll see what happens with all of these pilots as The CW settles in with its 2022-2023 schedule.
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That Damien Wayne show sounds like a hard ripoff of Runaways, particularly since Damien, aside from being Batman’s son, was also raised in a supervillain family.
“From the writers that brought you Batwoman” doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence on top of such an already derivative premise. The show has some good elements, but “incredible writing” isn’t among them.
A) the super cut of all the John and Mary stuff from Supernatural prime will more than likely be better than this spin-off.B) is Damien Wayne still considered an “adoptive son” when he’s Bruce Wayne’s child through complicated means?
If it’s him, and he seems like the only existing candidate since Jason Todd is being used on Titans, they’re probably making him adopted for the series to avoid having to go into it or imply that Batman had sex. It could also just be a new character like most of the villain kids will probably be.
Yeah, I have no idea how the Supernatural spinoff is supposed to work between the fact that it’s heavily bounded by the original show and that John and Mary’s life together was spent not hunting monsters.
Yeah, from what I remember and without googling to double check, John didn’t hunt til Mary died.Mary stopped hunting when she got with John. And I’m pretty sure we see John and Mary meet in the show.So this is just going to be one giant retcon.
Yup. Supernatural even screwed it up later on when Sam and Dean found the Men of Letters bunker, making their Winchester side a long line of hunters.
Batmite!
Man, TV just loves dancing around actually having Batman show up, doesn’t it. It’s like an endless parade of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Batman!” Batman substitutes. You know what the ‘60s show had? The actual Batman that people give a shit about.
And 90’s people were so confused about an animated Batman going at the same time as Batman films, the biggest concern why DC today doesn’t want headlining acts on TV, that Batman Forever was the second-biggest movie at the 1995 box office.
We’ve had enough back story of John Winchester and there mom in Supernatural to begin with so I’m not interested in this spin off.Walker Independence sounds pretty stereotypical but I’ll check it out.I don’t like Batwoman so I have no interest in Gotham Knights.I am however eagerly waiting to see how the reboot of Babylon 5 will turn out.
Walker? Wow. The new show is popular enough for a spinoff already? I saw half of the pilot, and… well, I have to get back to it.Son of Batman would work better if they just came out and had this be Damien Wayne. He already has a fan base. If it’s Jason Todd – Red Hood, fine, but anyway— now you have the conceit of presumably teen children of certain villains— will they be adopted too, or natural born? DC editorial seems to have this, uh, thing, about how the Joker isn’t allowed to procreate/have sex.. and for the nastier (male) villains, it pushes credibility that any woman who was not already insane would consensually lay with any of them. It’s also curious as to how any of them will be made distinct, or will the choice be made to give them the same gimmicks as their parent, (‘Riddleress’ is obsessed with quizzes, etc.)
The CW’s business plan is wildly inscrutable (to me at least, they must do really good business streaming in their app and/or licensing to netflix the day after the season finale airs), but I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, because I got 4 seasons of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend when it probably should have been canceled in its second season based on the ratings.
Walker is actually one of the CW’s best performing shows, likely because of Padaleki’s fangirls slobbering all over his beard and cowboy hat. In terms of overall viewers, only Superman & Lois is doing better.
Gotham Academy meets Nancy Drew? Ennnnnnnnnh…
Can we just get a Nancy Drew renewal, please? The show deserves it.
Right?!
Nancy Drew was renewed back in March.
Indeed it was, thank god.
They should have gone with the idea they had a few years ago. Jodi the Cop and her daughters hunting demons.
I was hoping someone would correct Barsanti regarding Damian Wayne’s name, but disappointingly the comments followed suit. Y’all make me feel like I’m the only nerd around sometimes.
Oh, good. The shitty Batwoman writers are moving to another show, meaning a decent chance at getting good writers on Batwoman.
Also,“But it’s not all bad news for Padalecki, as The CW has also ordered a pilot for Walker: Independence, a spin-off of the former Supernatural star’s new show that takes place in the 19th century and centers on an ancestor of Walker the Texas Ranger named Abby Walker.”*sigh* Really? The original series already HAD Walker’s ancestor, Hayes Cooper, that they could have used. Like, the new series already barely uses anything from the originals how other than Walker’s general look (and not even that, since Chuck Norris usually wore a denim jacket, gloves, dress shirt, and jeans, whereas Jared Padaleki wears a standard Texas police uniform), they could at least use Hayes Cooper. It’s not quite as bad as Walker getting whitewashed or not even bothering to bring in new versions of the old characters, but still.
I’m confused. Walker Texas Ranger and Supernatural are connected in a prequel?
No. Certain episodes of Walker had flashback adventures of Walker’s ancestor, a sheriff named Hayes Cooper. The writers didn’t exactly make a series bible for the character, so he ended up having, like, five different deaths through the show.
I can’t help but wonder if Padalecki being involved in the Walker spin-off is something from the network meant to take the sting out of him being left out of the Supernatural spin-off.Also, I’ll admit to being slightly intrigued by the premise for Gotham Knights, though my biggest question is how they’re going to work in the flashback to Thomas and Martha being murdered. It’s not a Batman show until and unless we get the slow-motion shot of Martha’s pearl necklace coming apart and clattering to the ground. (seriously, even the Joker movie found the time to kill off the Waynes on-screen)
Of all of Bruce’s sons, you assume his one biological son is the lead?Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake; all adopted by Bruce Wayne. Damian’s his one biological son.Unless you want to get into the DCAU continuity and bring in Terry McGinnis.
These all sound terrible.
On the one hand, that son of Batman TV show sounds terrible. On the other hand, Batman Beyond came about because WB insisted on a “Batman in high school” show and Bruce Timm managed to make lemonade out of it, so who knows.
In other CW news, they didn’t pick up the B5 pilot script from JMS…but they didn’t drop it, either. They took the unusual (though not unheard of) step of holding it over for next year’s pilot season.So…maybe.
Dead Batman’s son doing Batman stuff. Oh, c’mon, it’s like James Bond Jr is a teenage spy because MI6 hires teenagers for secret agent missions. Bullshit.