Justin Hartley’s wife, Sofia Pernas, will make multiple appearances in season 2 of CBS’ hit series Tracker.
“She’s definitely coming back. We have some pretty exciting stuff for her to do next year,” Hartley, 47, told Deadline on Sunday, May 19. “She’s coming back multiple times next year.”
The actor — and executive producer — isn’t stopping with Pernas, 34, who plays Colter’s rival Billie. Hartley confirmed plans to bring back several memorable guest stars, including Melissa Roxburgh as her on-screen sister and Jensen Ackles as her on-screen brother.
“We plan on bringing my whole family back. “We have a lot of questions to answer with Colter’s mom,” he said of the character’s storyline in season 2. “Jennifer Morrison did a really great job [as Colter’s childhood friend Lizzy]. I think we would be remiss if we didn’t bring her back.”
Hartley continued, “We’ve built a really great group of actors [who] hopefully will be willing to come back, because we’d love to do more with them. We have a lot of stories to tell with all of [them].”
After the season 1 finale aired on Sunday, Hartley reflected on the highlights of the CBS procedural so far. He was particularly open about working with Pernas, with whom he’s shared the screen multiple times.
“We had a great time together. I just thought it would be a really great idea. “It was my idea from the beginning to have this character come in that you just mentioned,” he explained to Deadline about preparing for Pernas’ debut as Billie. “I think in the second episode, there’s a big prize for a car. There’s a line where one of the women says, ‘Word on the street is Billie’s hanging around the case.’ And then Coulter rolls his eyes. If you’re really paying attention, you’re like, ‘Oh, he’s got a rival, this Billie guy.’” Hartley wanted to lay the groundwork for Pernas’ character — who left quite an impression on Colter. “My idea was to tease that and intentionally name the character Billie, and then reveal that Billie, of course, is Sofia. We didn’t tease that as much as I wanted to, just because we were so busy. But that was the intention,” he continued. “Then when she came along, honestly, I’m not sure how much of the character aspect that she brought was actually written.”
Hartley praised Pernas for her dedication to the role, adding, “You’re just watching a talented actor. There were a few things that we benefited from discussing privately that you wouldn’t normally have time to do. But when you live with that person, you can talk about those things over dinner and say, ‘Hey, what about this?’” So we actually had the opportunity to talk about that.”
Tracker isn’t the first time Hartley and Pernas have worked together. The pair originally met on the set of The Young and The Restless in 2015. They reunited years later, started dating, and got married in 2021. Since then, the pair have appeared on screen together in Quantum Leap and now Tracker.
“It’s great. It’s good for the environment, too. You can carpool and everything, which is great,” Hartley told E! News in February 2023 about plans to co-star with Pernas in future projects. “We’ll definitely do it. Absolutely.”
