You might’ve missed this hidden detail about Jared Padalecki in Gilmore Girls, here's what it was

Gilmore Girls has long been a comfort 2000s TV show for fans over the years. But even if you've watched the show more times than you can count on your fingers, there's a small yet surprising fact that you might've missed.

Jared Padalecki, who played Dean Forester, despite being one of the tallest members of the cast, was actually the youngest member of the main teen cast.

Shocking, is it not? He towered over most of his co-stars, carried himself with quiet maturity, and easily passed as older. But in reality? He was only 17 when the pilot was filmed, and it is this detail that might change how you might see Dean the next time you step into Stars Hollow.

Let's take a little look into how this little-known fact adds a layer to how we look at Gilmore Girls and Padalecki's early rise to fame.

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How old was Jared Padalecki in Gilmore Girls?

When we first see Dean in Stars Hollow, he looked like a normal and grounded high school boy. What many fans did not realize was that Jared Padalecki was hardly any older than Dean's age on the show.

He had turned 17 when they first began filming, making him the youngest member in Stars Hollow. Alexis Bledel (Rory) was 19, and Milo Ventimiglia (Jess) was 24. Even Keiko Agena, who played Lane, was 27 at the time.

So, regardless of Padalecki's height and his tall-boy leather jacket energy, Padalecki was in reality the "baby" to look out for in Stars Hollow.

You wouldn't guess it just by looking at him, would you? Standing at 6'4", Jared had a presence that made him seem more adult than his real age suggested.

But this tiny detail makes Dean all the more impressive. Playing a character so close in age while figuring out a set full of actors years older couldn't have been easy, yet he pulled it off seamlessly.

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What happened to Padalecki after Stars Hollow?

After Gilmore Girls Season 5, Jared Padalecki was far from giving up on acting. He stepped straight into another major TV universe with a role that would go on to actually define his career. That role? Yep, the very iconic Sam Winchester in Supernatural.

Padalecki jumped ropes from playing a sweet small-town Chicago boy to a demon hunter on the road, and fans loved it. Supernatural would then run for fifteen seasons, becoming one of the longest American fantasy/supernatural series ever.

What's interesting is that his character in Gilmore Girls almost cost him his role in Supernatural. The show's creator wasn't sure if Padalecki could pull off a sharp character like Sam. But Jared and his team made a strong case, and it paid off.

After Supernatural, he went on to be a lead on Walker, another show where he acted as both the lead and an executive producer. Padalecki will now be joining the cast of The Boys in Season 5, a show that already has his Supernatural brother Jensen Ackles.

From Dean Forester to Sam Winchester and more, Jared Padalecki's career has been anything but one-note.

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Gilmore Girls gave Jared Padalecki his break, but very few fans noticed that he was a baby among the show's young cast. Regardless of his age, he brought Dean Forester to life with so much maturity and nuance, mixing right in with his older co-stars.

This small detail makes his character even more lovable. Today, he's made out a career that goes way beyond living in Stars Hollow, but for Gilmore Girls fans, he'll always be Dean.

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