Wayward Sisters is not going to be another Bloodlines

There is fear among fans that a Supernatural spinoff won’t work, but Wayward Sisters will not be another Bloodlines.

Any Supernatural fan who is experiencing an out-of-body feeling over next week’s backdoor pilot to Wayward Sisters, take a deep breath. We live in a society quick in rushing to judgment and that goes double when it’s something we hold near-and-dear to our hearts.

Supernatural falls squarely in that category, and PTSD over the last time the show tried to spinoff another series is real. The upcoming series isn’t going to be a case of deja vu, as the chips are lined up a little more neatly this time around.

For starters, Wayward Sisters is doing something that Bloodlines — the first failed attempt to spinoff — didn’t; give us characters we’re already invested in. What the first series failed to do was give us characters that we were already emotionally invested in, which is the first step towards failure. At that point, you’re essentially creating a new show rather than spinning one off, and selling it to fans of Supernatural almost seems facetious.

There’s a lesson to be had from Doctor Who, which successful spun off Torchwood after the original series was revived in the mid-2000s. It was the perfect blending of characters we knew and ones that we were meeting for the first time with our old friend from the original series. Creating a new show is like attending a party where you don’t know anyone there; crafting a  spinoff is the same scenario but you have a familiar face.

The Wayward Sisters are those faces, and that’s a major reason why the show is going to hit with fans. From there we need to worry about the writing and acting staying on par, but those are secondary problems only worth exploring if the show latches on with fans.

Next: 21 Supernatural episodes to watch to get ready for Wayward Sisters

So far, all signs point to that happening. It might not be a good series (we haven’t seen it yet) but it feels like the disaster of Bloodlines will be avoided this time around.

Supernatural returns with the Wayward Sisters backdoor pilot on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 8/7c on The CW.