TV Guide

Thursday

Jul 26, 2018 at 5:01 PM


It looks like Jared Padalecki's glorious hiatus beard is finally making its way to Supernatural. When the show returns for Season 14, young Sam is ditching the scruff for a full-on chin forest and you have Jensen Ackles to thank for that. That's because Ackles originally pitched the idea for Michael (in Dean's body) to sport some fresh new facial hair but for reasons that can't be revealed yet, a Dean beard just wasn't at all possible. However, Sam, who will find himself in a rough emotional state following the loss of his big bro, is the perfect candidate to rock the unkempt look.

"I took that idea and I gave it to him," Ackles told TV Guide at Comic-Con of the beard swap. "I was like, now that you're trying to find your brother and you're in this depressed mode, you should pitch to see if you can keep your beard. And so he did and he's welcome." Yes, thank you, Jensen!

The first half of the new season will be focused on finding Dean, whose body has been hijacked by the archangel Michael for some pretty major evil-doing. With the real Dean MIA, Sam will be forced to step up and lead the Apocalypse World hunters while also desperately searching for his missing brother. And since he'll be dealing with so much all at once, that leaves little time for personal grooming.

"It made sense that Sam had better things to do than to wake up in the morning and tweeze his eyebrows and shave. He's distracted because all he can think about is his brother," Padalecki explained.

While we can't wait to see that magnificent beard in action, there's no one more excited about Sam's new look than Misha Collins. "Jared finally doesn't look like a child. It's like he's actually coming into a little bit of the adult male look," he joked.

Congrats on the glow up, Sam.

Supernatural returns Thursday, Oct.11 at 8/7c on the CW.

(Full disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS, a parent company of the CW.)



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