The series originally focuses primarily on the brothers Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester, played by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, as they travel throughout the country hunting down evil supernatural creatures. Padalecki became interested in the role because he liked horror series, including both "The X-Files" and "The Twilight Zone", which he found similar to the proposed plot of "Supernatural". He was also excited to play "the reluctant hero", comparing Sam to "The Matrix"s Neo and Luke Skywalker of "Star Wars". Padalecki had previous experience working with executive producers McG and David Nutter, the former convincing him to audition for the role. Ackles was originally asked by Nutter to audition for the role of Sam but preferred the character of Dean after reading the script. At the time of his audition, he was already a series regular on fellow WB series "Smallville". After landing the part of Dean, his "Smallville" role was cut short.