4 upcoming CW series that can fill the Supernatural void coming in May 2020

The 4400

It may not be horror but darken the tone a bit, and it easily could be. Originally airing in 2004, The 4400 was a sci-fi mystery series about a group of 4,400 people that vanished into a ball of light in 1946 and then returned years later without having aged a single day. They returned without any memory of their disappearance, and with some suddenly gifted with psychic abilities.

The storylines dealt with government conspiracies, time travel, human experimentation, and the end of the world. It ran for four seasons until its cancellation in 2007.

In November 2018, it was announced that a The 4400 reboot was in development at The CW with Taylor Elmore writing and producing alongside original writer Craig Sweeny. As of early 2019, Elmore and Sweeny are still working on finishing the script for the pilot. No production date has been set. If anything like the original, The 4400 has the potential to draw in Supernatural fans with its themes of apocalyptic doom, fight for free will, and psychic powers.

Walker, Texas Ranger

Walker, Texas Ranger is exactly how it sounds. A show about a Texas ranger named Walker, and it’s probably the next best thing after Supernatural‘s” Frontierland.” Inspired by the film Lone Wolf McQuade, the series starred Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division that used martial arts to fight crime with his partner and best friend, James “Jimmy” Trivette.

The series was a mix of everything; a cowboy ranger raised in Native American culture who fights crime using martial arts. Sounds crazy on paper but it worked well on screen, and now Texan-born Jared Padalecki will take the reigns as Texas Ranger Cordell Walker. However, I can’t really see lanky 6’4 Padalecki doing kung-fu.

Some scarce details about the reboot are that Walker will get a female partner instead of his friend Jimmy Trivette and that the series has officially landed at the CW. The description reads as follows:

"“At the center of the series is Cordell Walker (Padalecki), a man finding his way back to his family while investigating crime in the state’s most elite unit. Our broken widower and father of two returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years for a high profile case – only to discover that there’s even more work to be done at home. In a nod to the original series, Walker and his new partner — one of the only women in Texas Rangers’ history — are the modern-day heroes our world needs, following their own moral code to fight for what’s right, regardless of the rules.”"

Walker, Texas Ranger ran for eight seasons, had a short-lived spin-off titled Sons of Thunder, and got a TV movie sequel titled Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire set four years after the show.

Supernatural will have its series finale (I’m trying not to cry as I write this) Monday, May 18 at 8:00 p.m. EST.