Tom Welling just can’t escape The CW.

The Smallville star will not only be appearing on his old network in the first season of The Professionals, which debuts Tuesday, the network announced that Welling will join the cast of Supernatural prequel The Winchesters as Sam and Dean’s grandfather, Samuel Campbell. The character will first be seen on episode 7 of the show, which also premieres Tuesday.

The casting was confirmed at a panel for the show held at New York Comic Con over the weekend. Welling joined the panel and told the surprised crowd that “this is all Jensen’s fault. I lost a bet.” Added Ackles, “we’re really, really excited to have Tom. We knew we were going to need somebody to come in and somebody with the power and the strength and the history.” And as Welling left, Ackles told Meg Donnelly, who plays Mary, “your father is Superman, by the way.”

According to the character description, The Winchesters‘ Samuel is the patriarch of the Campbell hunting family and he taught Mary everything he knows. The character is described as gruff and pragmatic; a veteran hunter who prefers actions over words — and feels it’s his way or the highway. But when Samuel teams up with Mary and her friends to save the world, he won’t only have to defeat the most dangerous monster he’s ever faced — he’ll also have to mend his broken relationship with his daughter.

“When we were discussing casting the iconic character of Samuel Campbell, everyone felt it had to be someone who could step into the role and provide instant gravitas and history,” executive producer and showrunner Robbie Thompson said in a statement. “Jensen and Danneel brought up the idea of Tom Welling and the second his name was mentioned we all knew he was the perfect person for the part. Tom is a fantastic actor and wonderful human, and we are so excited to be welcoming him to The Winchesters and the Supernatural Family.”

Welling isn’t the only actor who never quite escaped The CW’s gravitational pull. The character was played by Mitch Pileggi on Supernatural, who now plays Jared Padalecki’s father on his show Walker. Ackles, of course, starred for several seasons on Smallville with Welling. Ackles is not only producing The Winchesters, but will narrate each episode as Dean.