‘The Winchesters’: See Tom Welling as Mary’s Father Samuel Campbell (PHOTOS)

We first saw Tom Welling in relation to The Winchesters when he joined the cast and executive producers on stage at New York Comic Con to announce he’d been playing Samuel Campbell, Mary’s (Meg Donnelly) father, in the Supernatural prequel. (It’s a Smallville reunion with EP and narrator Jensen Ackles.) And now The CW has released photos of his debut — and it looks like he’s been through a lot!

The series began with Samuel going missing while on a hunting trip (which sounded quite familiar to Supernatural fans), and now in “Reflections,” airing December 6, Mary and John (Drake Rodger) find trails that lead back to their fathers. (Gil McKinney is set to reprise his role as John’s father, Henry, in this episode as well. Supernatural revealed what happened to him.)

Also, in this episode, Carlos (JoJo Fleites) helps Mary investigate where the Akrida might be hiding, but they discover more than they bargained for.  Meanwhile, Millie (Bianca Kajlich) steps in to help Latika (Nida Kurshid), Ada (Demetria McKinney), and John to decipher notes left behind, and they stumble upon a way to get some answers.

According to the character description for The Winchesters‘ Samuel (who was played by Mitch Pileggi on Supernatural), he’s the patriarch of the Campbell Hunting family. He taught Mary everything he knew. Gruff and pragmatic, he’s a veteran Hunter who prefers actions over words — and it’s always his way or the highway. But when Samuel teams up with Mary and her friends to save the world, he won’t only have to defeat the most dangerous monster he’s ever faced — he’ll also have to mend his broken relationship with his daughter.

“When we were discussing casting the iconic character of Samuel Campbell, everyone felt it had to be someone who could step into the role and provide instant gravitas and history,” executive producer and showrunner Robbie Thompson said in a statement when the casting was announced. “Jensen and Danneel brought up the idea of Tom Welling, and the second his name was mentioned, we all knew he was the perfect person for the part. Tom is a fantastic actor and wonderful human, and we are so excited to be welcoming him to The Winchesters and the Supernatural Family.”

Scroll down to check out photos of Welling as Sam’s (Jared Padalecki) and Dean’s (Jensen Ackles) grandfather.

The Winchesters, Tuesdays, 8/7c, The CW