Jensen Ackles reveals he almost had a bigger role on Walker than that cameo

Warning: This post contains spoilers from the April 14 episode of Walker.

If you ever wondered how a Jensen Ackles-directed episode of Walker would start, now you have the answer: With a huge plate of bacon that would make Dean Winchester proud! Although the bacon was the first Supernatural Easter egg in the episode, it wasn't the last.

Moments later, Liam (Keegan Allen) brought out Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean's green cooler that lived in the Impala for 15 years. As Ackles previously told EW, the Easter eggs were a joint effort with episode writer Katherine Alyse. When they mentioned a reference to the cooler, Ackles took things one step further. "I was like, 'How about the actual green cooler?' They're like, 'I'm sorry what?!'" Ackles says with a laugh. "I said, 'I got it, should we use it?' And then the plate of bacon, that's a no-brainer."

But there was another Supernatural Easter egg in the episode for eagle-eyed fans. In the final scene of the episode, Fenton Cole (Josh Hopkins) pays a visit to Miles, and yes, that was Ackles standing in for Miles. "That's my M. Night Shyamalan," Ackles says, joking that he knew fans would recognize his bow legs. "I said to our DP, 'Is there light between my knees? Okay we're good, we can shoot.' They were like, 'No one's going to recognize that is you,' and I'm like, 'The right ones will.'"

As for how that cameo came about, Ackles explains, "They hadn't cast him and they were going to get some average height, average build guy to stand there so I was like, 'I can do that!'"

But the cameo is nothing compared to the role Ackles was originally offered in the episode. "The guy that plays Fenton Cole, Josh Hopkins, that was a call I made," Ackles says. "He and I worked together on Rust and after the incident, he had just recently moved to Austin during COVID, and he was like, 'Hey man what are you going to do?' I was like, 'I think I'm gonna drive home. I could use a nice 10-hour day in a car.' And he was like, 'You want some company?' So we spent 10, 11 hours in the car after that incident and really bonded."

"So when that role came up, they actually asked me to play it," Ackles continues. "I was like, it's too big of a role for me to do in an episode that I'm directing that's a new show. If it's Supernatural it's one thing, I know that character backwards and forwards, but creating a new character onscreen while also trying to direct might be a taller order than I'm willing to do. So I called Josh and he was like, 'Yeah man I'll come play with you.'"

Walker airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

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