Jensen Ackles, best known for his role of Dean Winchester in Supernatural, may have already teased his evolution into Batman 18 years ago. Ackles portrayed legendary monster hunter Dean Winchester in The CW’s Supernatural from its 2005 premiere until its 2020 finale, as well as in spinoff The Winchesters. This gave Ackles immense recognition that has made him a fan-favorite choice to be cast as the new Dark Knight in The Brave and the Bold, the Batman-centric reboot of the new DC Universe, and Supernatural may have already hinted at this future for the star.
Back in 2007, Supernatural season 3, episode 3, “Bad Day at Black Rock,” marked the debut of Lauren Cohan as Bela Talbot and featured the next chapter in Gordon Walker’s (Sterling K. Brown) vendetta against the Winchesters. After receiving good luck from the cursed rabbit’s foot, however, Dean was easily able to take down Walker’s men (Michael Massee and Jon Van Ness) using a pen and a television remote. His skilled takedown of Kubrick and Creedy led to him proclaiming, “I’m Batman,” and Sam (Jared Padelecki) agreed, perhaps foreshadowing Ackles’ perfect future role.
Jensen Ackles has recently shown off his superhero skills as the twisted Soldier Boy in Amazon Prime Video’s The Boys and Gen V, and he’ll reprise this role in a prequel spinoff, Vought Rising, alongside the similarly-corrupt Stormfront (Aya Cash). This dark and controversial role has provided something of a tease to what Ackles’ Batman could be like, though the Caped Crusader would have far more heroic qualities. This isn’t Ackles’ first foray into superhero media, as he’s also regularly voiced characters in animated DC projects, and appeared as Jason Teague in Smallville after initially auditioning for Clark Kent.
In DC’s animated Batman: Under the Red Hood movie, Ackles voiced Jason Todd’s Red Hood, while he has since voiced Bruce Wayne’s Batman himself in Batman: The Long Halloween, Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League: Warworld, and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths. The latter released only last year, suggesting Ackles currently has a strong relationship with DC Studios that could easily lead to him making the move to live-action. DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn confirmed the development of The Brave and the Bold as a Batman-centric reboot in January 2023, but casting for the Dark Knight hasn’t yet been announced.
Jensen Ackles has been speculated to be in the running to be the DCU’s Batman alongside other notable stars, including Reacher’s Alan Ritchson, The Punisher’s Ben Barnes, Road House’s Jake Gyllenhaal, Da Vinci’s Demons’ Tom Bateman, and more. Ackles, however, is already uniquely qualified to play the Dark Knight, so it would be brilliant to see him make his live-action DCU debut in The Brave and the Bold. This would expertly pay off Supernatural season 3’s Batman joke, and contribute to a hilarious case of unwitting foreshadowing, 18 years in the making.
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