Across its 14 seasons on the air, Supernatural has featured a whole mess of Faustian contracts and other sorts of otherworldly deals, agreements between regular folks and powerful, frequently malevolent entities that offer great and terrible privileges and opportunities…at a price. All of which is to say: What’s The CW got on Jared Padalecki, huh?
Deadline reports today that the network has just picked up Padalecki’s latest TV project, the reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger—still TV’s number one provider of heroic characters named “Cordell.” Said pick-up order comes after a decade-plus of Supernatural, plus Padalecki’s previous stint as eventual ex-boyfriend material on Gilmore Girls (although, if we feel like splitting exquisitely lustrous hairs here, all of his seasons took place back when The CW was still the WB.)
Padalecki’s take on the Walker franchise is sounding a bit more grounded and dramatic than the “man is good, man kicks men who are not good” premise of the Chuck Norris original; this version of Walker is a widower coming off of a stint of undercover work to help his kids deal with the death of his wife. (Some kicking will still presumably be involved.) The series is being written and executive produced by Valor’s Anna Fricke, with Lethal Weapon’s Dan Lin also set to produce.