TV Supernatural: Jensen Ackles is finally going to play a character other than Dean By Samantha Highfill Samantha Highfill Samantha is a writer based in Los Angeles. Television is her one true love, and she tweets about it. A lot. EW's editorial guidelines Published on March 19, 2018 02:54PM EDT For the most part, Supernatural stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles have had similar experiences on the show. For 13 seasons now, they’ve each played a Winchester brother, and together, Sam and Dean have battled every kind of angel and demon imaginable. They’ve both died. They’ve both come back from the dead. They’ve both lost parents. They’ve both gotten a second chance at having a mom. You get the idea. But there’s one major difference between Ackles and Padalecki’s experiences playing their characters … Dean Buscher/The CW As Ackles tells EW, “Over the years I’ve only ever had to just play Dean, whereas Jared has had to be Lucifer and Gadreel and all these different actual characters other than Sam. Dean never had to do that. He’s only been Dean. The biggest stretch was Demon Dean but it was still Dean, it was just the demon version of himself, which I always love because it makes my job easier — I can just play the character I know,” Ackles says, before adding, “That is all going to change soon. Something big’s coming.” If you think that sounds ominous, well, welcome to Supernatural. Supernatural airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.