Former ‘Supernatural’ Showrunner Reveals What Went Wrong With Planned Spinoff — And What the Future Could Hold

The Supernatural universe almost had a powerful new chapter with Wayward Sisters, but things didn’t work out the way fans had hoped. The spin-off was first announced in June 2017 and was supposed to follow Sheriff Jody Mills, played by Kim Rhodes, as she trained a group of young women who had all lost their families to supernatural events.

Unlike Supernatural, which was all about the bond between brothers Sam and Dean, Wayward Sisters was built around a chosen family of women learning to fight monsters and survive together.

The show was developed by longtime Supernatural creatives Andrew Dabb, Robert Berens, Robert Singer, and Phil Sgriccia. It even got a backdoor pilot during Season 13 of Supernatural, which gave fans a first look at what the spin-off could become. Sadly, in May 2018, The CW decided not to move forward with it.

Writer Robert Berens broke the news on May 11, 2018, and Andrew Dabb followed with a heartfelt message online. “It breaks my heart to say this, but CW has chosen to pass on Wayward Sisters,” Dabb wrote. “We love these characters, and have spent almost two years trying to make this show a reality… but there are some fights, sometimes, you can’t win.” He went on to thank the fans and everyone involved, promising that “these characters will live on.”

Fans were crushed. Just a few days later, a group called Wayward Daughters launched a social media campaign to try and save the show. They urged others to flood The CW, Netflix, and more with messages of support on the night of the Supernatural Season 13 finale, hoping someone would step in and give the show a second chance.

The CW, however, stood by its choice. Network president Mark Pedowitz said that although they liked the cast and concept, the show wasn’t where they wanted it creatively. “We had really great material this year,” he explained. “We’re big fans of the characters and the women who played them, but we felt we had a better shot with Legacies.” He added that he hoped the actresses would continue to appear as guests on Supernatural.

Years later, now in 2025, in an interview with TV Insider, Andrew Dabb revisited the project. He admitted the chances of the show ever happening now are slim. “That ship has sailed,” he said. “But the pilot script was really good, and there were more stories to tell.”

Dabb said the plan was to bring Supernatural “back to basics” by focusing on monsters instead of angels and demons, which were more Sam and Dean’s thing. He also mentioned that they had planned to explore alternate realities before they became overused in other shows.

“The other thing that you’d have there, which you didn’t have on Supernatural as much — you did in bits and pieces — was the formation of this team, which I thought was really cool and a process we had started. And then we were going to get into alternate realities, which, at this point now, they’ve been done so many times. I’m like, “I don’t want to see another story with alternate realities ever again.” But at that point in time, they were still new enough. We were like, “Oh, that’s interesting. We could do something with that.” I mean, there’s a reason we had Chuck [Rob Benedict’s God] destroy all our alternate realities in the Supernatural season finale, because I’m like, “I think we’ve seen enough of that. I think we’ve definitely seen enough of that.“

In the end, Wayward Sisters didn’t make it to series, but it clearly left a mark on the cast, creators, and fans alike.

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