Jared Padalecki Opens up About ‘Supernatural’ Spinoff Drama With Jensen Ackles

It looks like Winchester brothers Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles have resolved their issues following the Supernatural spinoff drama and social media fallout. For those who remember, Padalecki expressed some disappointment after finding out about Ackles’ deal to develop the offshoot project The Winchesters, but in Padalecki’s recent interview with the New York Times, the actor reveals the two have since made up after clearing the confusion. He says he spoke to Ackles who “just kind of explained, ‘Man, it’s not picked up yet. It’s not even written yet,’” Padalecki told the outlet. “He knows and I know how much Supernatural means to both of us, and it wasn’t a secret he was trying to keep, necessarily. It was just something that he didn’t feel really even existed yet. But he has been like: ‘Hey, I’ll let you know what’s going on.’”

The Winchesters will follow Sam and Dean’s story from the very beginning, focusing on a young version of the duo’s parents John and Mary Winchester. Ackles will narrate and executive produce the project, which is in development at the CW. Following the announcement, Padalecki reacted on Twitter with his shock. “Dude. Happy for you. Wish I heard about this some way other than Twitter. I’m excited to watch, but bummed that Sam Winchester had no involvement whatsoever,” he wrote. After a fan suggested Padalecki’s message “has GOTTA be a bad joke,” Padalecki responded, “No. It’s not. This is the first I’ve heard about it. I’m gutted.”

The two actors settled the issue pretty quickly. Padalecki shortly released another tweet saying that they had talked about the incident. “[Jensen Ackles] and I had a great talk, as we do often, and things are good,” he wrote. “The show is early in the process with miles to go. We’ve travelled a lot of roads together, and sometimes those damn roads have bumps. Bumps don’t stop us. Once brothers, always brothers.”

He continued in his interview saying that the interaction became taken out of control on social media: “It was just one of those things that, because it was online and people were assuming I was part of it, I really wanted to just say: ‘Hey, I’m not keeping a secret from you guys. I just don’t know about this,’” he explained. “And I should be old enough to know better than to put something out there and expect that people will understand. It’s hard to tweet a specific tone. If you write it online, it’s like, ‘Oh, he doesn’t know! They’re going to kill each other! The world is ending!’ And I’m like, ‘No, no, no.’ I try to avoid social media as much as possible because of that.”