Tracker Season 2: Hartley Talks Jensen Ackles’ “Pretty Heroic” Russell
The last time we checked in to see how things were going with CBS’s Justin Hartley (NBC’s This Is Us) series Tracker, it was early August and Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, The Boys) said he had wrapped filming in Vancouver. Earlier this year, Hartley confirmed that Ackles’ Russell Shaw — the brother of Hartley’s Colter — would return in the second episode of the second season — and now, with the episode wrapped and the series getting closer to its October 13 return date, Hartley is sharing some insight into what Ackles’ Russell will bring to the game this season and how there will be more layers added to the overarching questions surrounding their father and family history.
“It’s more about family. We ended the first season with Colter having a lot of questions. He doesn’t even know who he can trust anymore. At the beginning of last season, he thought his brother had something to do with his father’s death, and then he finds out, wait a minute, he might not have had anything to do with it. Also, why is Dory [their older sister, played by Melissa Roxburgh] hiding all of this?” Hartley shared, noting that Ackles’ return will also see a deeper exploration into the mysteries surrounding their family’s past.
“So Russell comes back, and Colter has a few questions for him about Dory’s situation and the box she has and does Russell know where it is? Russell is pretty heroic in Episode 2, too, and they get involved in a really dark operation, a weird thing. And these government officials start asking about our dad out of the blue, and you’re like, ‘Oh, what’s this all about?’ So in each episode, Dad is becoming a little more vindicated, maybe, or maybe just completely insane. We don’t know. We’re going to dig a little deeper into that,” Hartley added. EP “Tracker” Elwood Reid talks about season 2 Speaking to TV Insider, EP Elwood Reid offered some insight into how the Colter family mysteries will see Russell and his sister, Dory (Roxburgh), continue to play a role in the overarching storyline — as the three begin to realize that their parents hold more secrets than they realize. “They’ll be coming and going from the show,” Reid shared. “If we can drop a few bombs into Colter’s life with those characters and then see how he struggles with them, then we’ll have them come back to sort of resolve the issue – because, I mean, the evidence we have in the show right now is that his sister definitely has a view of what he should do, which is forget about it and leave it at that. And then you look at Jensen’s character Russell; he seems to have put it all in a box in a way and just deal with it. But you’ll know in Episode 2, he has very different memories of something that happened in their past that Colter doesn’t remember at all.”
With the revelation that Russell had nothing to do with his father and Colter’s deaths (“at least not in the capacity that Colter thinks he did”) and other mysterious family dynamics at play, Reid believes there’s still a lot more to the overall family story that hasn’t been told yet – which means there’s more opportunity to bring Ackles and Roxburgh back. “Jensen’s coming back, which is great. Can’t wait to see him. We always had so much fun together. He’s a crazy actor and super talented. So we’re so lucky to have him. And I love Melissa as a person. She’s a dear friend, and so I think there’s a lot of stories to tell there, so it would be great to have her back.”
Based on the best-selling novel The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver, the CBS series focuses on Hartley’s Colter, a lone survivor who roams the country as a bounty hunter, using his expert tracking skills to help private citizens and law enforcement solve all sorts of mysteries while struggling with his own broken family. Produced by 20th Television, CBS’ Tracker stars Hartley (Colter Shaw), Fiona Rene (Reenie), Robin Weigert (Teddi), Abby McEnany (Velma) and Eric Graise (Bobby). Hartley, Ken Olin, Elwood Reid and Ben Winters serve as executive producers, with Deaver serving as executive producer.
