“Supernatural” creator Eric Kripke has said he always wanted the Winchesters’ 1967 Chevy Impala to be a third character on the show. After all, it’s essentially a home for Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) while they cruise America’s haunted highways, saving people and hunting things. Kripke has credited a neighbor with steering him toward the vehicle that would become known as Baby.
“When I told my neighbor in Venice [California], who was a mechanic, that I wanted a bada** car and was thinking of a ’65 Mustang, he said, ‘Yeah, a Mustang is the perfect car if you’re a p**sy,'” Kripke recalled in an interview with TV Insider. “And without missing a beat, he said, ‘You want a ’67 Impala because you can put a body in that trunk.’ I ran to my computer to look it up, and it was perfect.”
The rest is history. The Impala became a constant presence in the show and made an impact — one “Supernatural” Season 15 episode even tells the story from Baby’s perspective. It was fitting, then, that Ackles and Padalecki were each gifted their own Impalas after filming the final episode.
“The first song I listened to when I got in [my] Impala was ‘Carry On Wayward Son,'” Padalecki told TV Insider, referencing the Kansas track that accompanies many scenes of Sam and Dean driving around in episodes of “Supernatural.” “I see it in my garage and I already feel nostalgic about how many hours of my life I probably spent in that vehicle.”
Baby almost had more capabilities on Supernatural
Casting a Mustang in the role of Baby isn’t the only unused idea Eric Kripke had for the main car on “Supernatural.” Recalling his work on the series during a Reddit AMA, the creator recalled wanting to kit the vehicle out with unique gadgets that could have made the Winchester brothers take cues from classic pop culture spy stories — but he opted not to follow through with it.
“In the pilot, we explored adding James Bond-style switches to the Impala dash — to release oil, or salt. We might have even shot it. But then we realized that was stupid.”
While salt could have been useful in the Winchesters’ battles with demons and spirits, the idea was nixed quite quickly. In the end, Baby didn’t need hidden gadgets or spy tricks, because its real power came from becoming an emotional anchor — a symbol of home, brotherhood, and the road that defined “Supernatural” for 15 seasons.
