Tracker Team Reveals Jensen Ackles’ Season 2 Role
After becoming wildly popular with fans of the crime drama and action adventure, Tracker is gearing up for a second season this fall. The recent news that Jensen Ackles will be returning to the show in a much more substantial role than before has only added to the hype surrounding the second season of the hit CBS series.
At Comic-Con 2024 in San Diego last month, Tracker star Justin Hartley and executive producer Elwood Reid spoke to ComicBook about what fans can expect heading into Season 2, remaining tight-lipped about the plot but revealing how the Supernatural actor fits perfectly into the story and helps bring out the unique nuances of Hartley’s character, Colter Shaw. Reid also emphasized the fact that Ackles’ return is crucial to advancing the overall storyline. Quote from Hartley’s conversation with Reid in the interview: “It’s great. You wrote a good dynamic. The brother is taken right from the book, it’s a difficult relationship, the way he writes it. Of course there’s tension, because of what happened, what they’ve been through. But then, they’re also brothers. And from the beginning, the silence that they had and they didn’t speak, they didn’t talk, they didn’t do anything, they didn’t communicate. And now, here they are side by side and they have to do this together. So, I think it’s great. And that dynamic is great, too, because we see this lone wolf character. He’s always doing his own thing. And then, all of a sudden, you see this other guy next to him. And there’s a little tension there to see Colter that we haven’t seen before.”
Tracker follows Colter Shaw, a veteran survivor and professional “tracker” who works as a lone wolf, assisting law enforcement and civilians in finding missing people and solving crimes, often in exchange for money. The series is adapted from the novels by Jeffery Deaver and was praised by critics and fans upon its release for its faithfulness to the genre.
Jensen Ackles first appeared on Tracker in Season 1 as Russell Shaw, Colter’s estranged brother. His character was teased throughout the first season, building anticipation for the big reveal. Needless to say, his casting as Russell only added to the richness of the story. Reid also expressed his excitement about Ackles’ casting and admired his off-screen chemistry with Hartley, further explaining how their dynamic made it easier for him to portray Russell Shaw.
“It’s not really acting when you see [Hartley and Ackles] together. It’s crazy. You’re always nervous when you write something to see if they have chemistry. The dynamic – I don’t say a damn thing. I don’t say anything. And these guys… I was like, ‘This could be a disaster,’ because I’ve worked with Jensen before and you never know when these guys are filming, I was there. I was just like, ‘Oh, okay, I understand what this is.’ But they showed me how to write it. It was just to see the chemistry they had. It was crazy… He’s got history with him, it’s too businesslike to have that.”
Despite not spending, like, a hundred hours filming together, Hartley and Ackles have a long-standing friendship and professional relationship that easily translates into a trusting on-screen brotherly relationship. Season two will delve deeper into Colter’s broken family dynamics and his tense past with Russell. Ackles’ return will add new twists to this dramatic and suspenseful season.
