Jensen Ackles’ Subtle Tribute to his Supernatural Character in Justin Hartley’s Tracker Proves He Can Never Escape the Iconic Dean Winchester
Jensen Ackles made his entry into the entertainment industry as a child model, but he did not begin his acting career until 1996. He appeared in several guest roles and even had starring roles in shows like Dark Angel and Dawson’s Creek. Fast forward to 2005, he landed a role in a series called Supernatural, which proceeded to become one of the most popular shows of the 21st century.
Ackles portrayed Dean Winchester in the series and gained international recognition for his performance. The show concluded in 2020 with the fifteenth season and the actor has been consistently working on other projects ever since. Even so, fans’, and his own love for the show keeps bringing him back to it some way or the other, and his guest role on Justin Hartley’s TV series Tracker seems to be no exception.
Jensen Ackles Leaves a Subtle Supernatural Easter Egg in Tracker
Supernatural is a dark fantasy drama, created by Eric Kripke, that follows brothers Dean (Ackles) and Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) on their journey of hunting down monsters, demons, ghosts, and other such supernatural creatures while battling their personal demons. The eleventh season itself made it the longest-running American live-action fantasy drama series.
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After the show ended, Jensen Ackles appeared in roles on shows like The Boys and Big Sky. He also executive-produced and narrated a Supernatural spin-off The Winchesters for The CW. However, the show had to be canceled after a single season. This, however, does not stop the actor from dropping Easter eggs every now and then. His guest appearance on Tracker is no exception.
Ackles plays the role of Justin Hartley’s character Colter Shaw’s estranged older brother Russell Shaw. In the series’ most recent episode, Colter gives in and decides to help Russell find his former army friend. He goes to a motel to pick up Russell, which is enough of a coincidence for fans to connect the dots between the two shows.
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As Russell makes his way to the passenger’s seat of Colter’s pick-up truck, he pats a Chevrolet Impala that was parked right next to the truck. This Impala, which Dean fondly called ‘Baby’ is the same one that the Winchester brothers used for their monster hunting. This was a way-too-obvious Easter egg that fans couldn’t have missed even if they wanted to.
Jensen Ackles Was Adamant About Taking the Impala Home
It is not uncommon for stars to take home things from sets as memorabilia for the project, but Ackles had his eyes on set on such a big thing when he bid farewell to Supernatural that he had to fight for years to have it.
In an interview with Digital Spy, he admitted just how desperate he was to take the black 1967 Chevrolet Impala passed on to Dean from his father John Winchester. He said:
“As far as taking something on the final day, I will definitely be taking something that I’ve had my eye on since day one of Supernatural. But it’s okay, I’m not stealing it. I got permission. I begged and begged and pleaded for years, but I finally got it this year. They’re going to let me drive home the Impala.”
Meanwhile, Jared Padalecki admitted to having taken home quite a few props from the set. He also said that he really wanted to take the Men of Letter’s bunker and he would have, had it had fit in his car.
Supernatural is available for streaming on Netflix, and Tracker is available for streaming on Paramount+.
