SUPERNATURAL Producers Originally Wanted Bruce Campbell to Play Sam and Dean's Father
Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been great in the role of John Winchester in The CW series Supernatural. But when it came to casting the older version of Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean’s (Jensen Ackles) father, producers wanted a different actor to play the character.
It turned out that they originally wanted to cast Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell in the role. They wanted another actor in the role because Morgan isn’t much older than Ackles and Padalecki are. But, things obviously things didn’t work out with Campbell, and they opted to make Morgan look older. The producers weren’t interested in casting anyone else.
Ackles shared this little tidbit of information on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast explaining:
"That was the only person that they wanted. Ultimately, they couldn't make it happen, whether it was [because of his] schedule or whatever. So they kind of threw their hands up in the air, and [were] like, 'Well, maybe we can just age Jeff up and have him come back and play an older version of himself.'"
Things obviously worked out great with Morgan, but now I can’t help but think what the older version of the character would have been like with Campbell in the role! That could have been a lot of fun! But, in the end, keeping Morgan in the role seemed to make the most sense. What do you all think?