Supernatural fans, assemble: two years after season 15 of the long-running horror show wrapped, its prequel is due to begin. The Winchesters begins on October 11, with a new episode airing weekly, and you can watch it in a few different ways.
The Winchesters follows John and Mary, the parents of Dean and Sam (the main characters of Supernatural), and tells the story of how they met and how they started hunting demons, ghouls, monsters, and all the other dark creatures that lurk in the dark corners of the Supernaturalverse.
These two characters have been depicted quite a few times over the 327 episodes of Supernatural, so we already know a lot about these two characters and have seen them quite a few times.
But given how popular Supernatural is, with so many passionate fans, The Winchesters was inevitable, to explore this universe from another perspective. Saying that, Jensen Ackles will be reprising his role as Dean Winchester from the original series, though just as a narrator.
Despite having fans all over the world, The Winchesters is only readily available to watch in the US. However, if you live elsewhere, you do have options — here's how you can watch the show.
How to watch The Winchesters in the US
If you live in the US, you have two key ways to watch The Winchesters.
The first is via The CW, the network that's home to the show and its prequel. You could watch them when each episode airs, or via the channel's website. The latter is free, however there's a day's delay before the episodes get put online, so you'll be a little behind.
Also you can use Hulu — the popular streaming service is going air all 13 episodes of the TV show. You can sign up to Hulu here, but we've also got a guide on how to get the Hulu free trial here. Just bear in mind that The Winchesters is released weekly, so if you're going to use the month-long trial, you should wait until they're all online.
How to watch The Winchesters anywhere
There's an easy way to watch The Winchesters if you're going to be away from home, and it's called a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN lets you get around the usual frustrating digital barriers by changing your IP address, meaning you can watch your favorite TV shows even if you're going to be away from home.
Our favorite is ExpressVPN, which lets you change your IP address on whichever device you want to watch your new favorite show on. ExpressVPN is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our colleagues at TechRadar.
How to watch The Winchesters in the UK
Unfortunately, The Winchesters isn't readily available to view in the UK. Hopefully, it will be at some point — ITV aired Supernatural, and the show is on Prime Video in its entirety at the moment, but there's no official news on that front right now.
Everything else to know about The Winchesters
The Winchesters follows John Winchester and Mary Campbell, two 'hunters' as they're called in Supernatural — hunters are people who spend their lives hunting and killing (or dispatching of in other ways) monsters.
In Supernatural, Mary is the mother of Dean and Sam (the main characters) who died when the brothers were children (an act depicted in the first-ever episode). However in later episodes, when time travel episodes abound and characters keep coming back from the dead (and dying again), we see her past and far future.
John has more of a role in Supernatural, as he's the one who taught Dean and Sam to hunt, and is alive for the first season of the show (and returns in later ones — like we said, in later seasons, death lasts about as long as a headache). The story of the first few seasons of Supernatural involves the brothers hunting the demon who killed their mother, something John is central in.
Both characters exist largely to add flavor and extra elements to Dean and Sam, so The Winchesters is an opportunity for them to get expanded upon, so we can see more of the world of the show.
Apparently, the show is about how John and Mary met, got into hunting and fell in love, and they're also apparently searching for their fathers (who are, presumably, two separate people).
It's not clear if The Winchesters is a 'monster-of-the-week' show, like Supernatural began as, or if it's going to be tightly focused around the story of the characters, but we'll find out soon enough.
The trailer shows everything we've come to expect from the universe including creepy monsters, secret cults, demons and... the Vietnam War? Okay, that one's new.
If you're really interested in The Winchesters, you can check out our article telling you everything else you need to know.
