Jensen Ackles Had To Be Tempted With Harrison Ford’s Inimitable Star Wars Character To Accept a Role in Supernatural After Being Recast
Jensen Ackles, best known for his role as Dean Winchester in the horror drama series Supernatural on the WB/CW, co-starring with Misha Collins and Jared Padalecki, is considered one of the most gifted performers in the business and a beloved figure among viewers.
Fans have loved the actor’s portrayal of Dean Winchester on the program when it first aired on television in 2005. After its eleventh season debuted, the show—which continued for fifteen seasons before ending in 2020—became the longest-running live-action fantasy television program in the United States. However, did you know that the actor’s casting as Dean Winchester on the show was partially influenced by Harrison Ford?
Jensen Ackles’ Supernatural character has a Harrison Ford connection
Actor Jensen Ackles, who is widely popular for playing Dean Winchester on Supernatural, appeared on Supernatural Then and Now, where he revealed that initially he had not auditioned for the role of Dean. He explained,
“It was just a basic audition scene but Dean was still written with the voice that carried through and became the character. And I read for [creator Eric] Kripke and [director] David [Nutter] at Wonderland, at McG’s offices on Sunset there. I sat down, David said a few nice words because we’d gone through that Smallville thing together. Then I read for Sam.”
But when Jared Padalecki showed up and read for the part of Sam, the producers had to re-think casting Ackles for the part. Instead, they called him up to play a different part that resembled the character from Star Wars; Han Solo and Jensen Ackles accepted, which is how Dean Winchester came into play.
In his appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast in 2021, the actor noted when asked about playing Dean on-screen;
“I love the character because the two characters, this is no secret, were written very much like a Luke Skywalker and a Han Solo. Indiana Jones, Han Solo, those were the characters, even though they’re both played by the same actor.”
Harrison Ford played the role of Han Solo in the 1977’a Star Wars movie and it has been a known fact that series creator Erick Kripke is a massive Star Wars fan and it shows in his writing along with the casting choices.
Jensen Ackles on reprising Dean Winchester’s for The Winchesters
The actor who portrayed the character of Dean Winchester for fifteen seasons on-screen reprised his character once again for the season one finale episode of The Winchesters, where he also serves as the executive producer and the narrator of the series.
Jensen spoke at the EW’s video studio at New York Comic Con about how he feels about slipping back into the shoes of his beloved character and said,
“There were a few things from the wardrobe department that went missing when [Supernatural] came to an end. I didn’t know why. But they somehow managed to turn up when I was required to show back up on camera. This character is a part of me and will be with me forever. He’s kind of ingrained in me, so to get to slip back into that character is always fun.”
The actor had previously noted, according to IMDB, that he wanted to play the character of Dean because he’s funny compared to Sam and noted that the minute he read the script he just knew that he wanted to be a part of it.
Supernatural is available to stream on Netflix.
