The third time might be the charm for Supernatural spinoffs on The CW.

According to Deadline, the network is developing a prequel spinoff about Dean and Sam’s parents, young John and Mary Winchester, with Ackles and his wife Danneel Ackles attached to executive-produce. Ackles will also reprise his Dean Winchester character as a narrator of the new show.

The Winchesters, which has a script commitment, will be written and executive produced by another Supernatural alum, former co-executive producer Robbie Thompson, a former co-executive producer on the show.

Supernatural, which ended its 15-season run last fall, starred Ackles and Jared Padalecki as brothers Dean and Sam Winchester who hunt demons, ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural beings. The show was enormously popular by CW standards, developing a huge cult following.

Aside from Ackles, no other Supernatural cast members have been attached to the show, though Misha Collins (Castiel) jokingly said on Facebook today that the new show “would benefit from a time-traveling angel-in-a-trenchcoat character.”

The Winchesters, as described by the network, will tell the “epic, untold love story of how John met Mary, and how they put it all on the line to not only save their love, but the entire world.” Jensen Ackles will narrate from the point of view of Dean, who is John and Mary’s eldest son. 

“After Supernatural wrapped its 15th season, we knew it wasn’t over. Because like we say in the show, ‘nothing ever really ends, does it?’,” Jensen Ackles said in a statement. “When Danneel and I formed Chaos Machine Productions, we knew the first story we wanted to tell was the story of John and Mary Winchester, or rather the Supernatural origin story. I always felt like my character, Dean, would have wanted to know more about his parents’ relationship and how it came to be. So I love the thought of having him take us on this journey.”

Supernatural superfans do know a lot about the Winchester parents; in the show, young John and Mary were portrayed in several episodes by Matt Cohen and Amy Gumenick, while Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Samantha Smith played John and Mary in the present day. As the announcement did not mention casting, there is no way of knowing now if Cohen and Gumenick will reprise their roles or if the characters will be recast.

Though the first spinoff to not get a backdoor pilot, The Winchesters marks the network’s third attempt to create a companion show for Supernatural. Bloodlines and the female-centric Wayward Sisters both failed to get series orders.

If The Winchesters is picked up, the CW will have both stars of Supernatural returning home; Padalecki is the star and executive producer of Walker, which is headed to a second season. If picked up, Ackles will be appearing in two shows simultaneously. He also has a high-profile new role as Soldier Boy on Season 3 of Amazon’s hit series The Boys. 

In other classic WB-slash-CW series news, Smallville’s Tom Welling said this week in a Cameo message to a fan, “Michael Rosenbaum [Lex Luthor] and I are actually working on an animated series to bring those characters back to life, and use as many of the original cast members as possible.” Welling asked the fan to keep the news a secret and obviously they did not do that, so without an official announcement from somebody, there is not much more to known beyond what Welling disclosed.