Look Who’s Back: Tracker Boss Confirms the Character Return We’ve Been Waiting For
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The beloved Jensen Ackles — or Dean Winchester for those Supernatural diehards — had Tracker fans at the edge of their seats this past spring when he appeared as Colter Shaw’s (Young and the Restless alum Justin Hartley’s) estranged brother, Russell. While his character was well received, concerns of Ackles’ return to the series came when news broke that The CW alum had been cast in Countdown, a Prime Video thriller series that could dash his chances of coming back to Tracker. So, did Ackles make the cut for the CBS drama’s second season? Read more to find out.
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Is Jensen Ackles coming back for Tracker Season 2?
As Season 1 viewers may recall, tension between the Shaw brothers was high throughout the series as Colter believed his brother played a role in their father’s death. Despite multiple failed attempts at reconciliation — partly facilitated by their sister Dory (Melissa Roxburgh) — Colter and Russell’s relationship remained at odds by the end of the season.
Despite not making his official appearance until the penultimate episode of Season 1, Russell’s — as well as Dory’s — futures on the show were left unclear. However, after months of mystery, executive producer Elwood Reid finally confirmed that the two will be appearing and “coming in and out of” Tracker in Season 2.
More: Everything to know about Tracker Season 2
“Jensen’s coming back, which is great,” Reid told TV Insider at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in July. “Can’t wait to see him. We always have so much fun together. He’s a riot and a super talented actor as well.” He continued, “So we’re very lucky to have him. And I love Melissa as a person. She’s a close friend, and so I think there’s a lot more story to tell there, so [we] would love to have her back.”
Ackles’ return is good news after fans speculated that he wouldn’t be back following news in June that he had been cast in Prime Video’s upcoming series Countdown, created by former One Chicago showrunner Derek Haas. Along with Countdown, Ackles will also star in the Prime Video’s upcoming The Boys prequel, Vought Rising, in which he’ll reprise his role as Soldier Boy. Roxburgh, for her part, is also booked and busy and will star in NBC’s upcoming drama series, The Hunting Party.
As the first season explained, Colter — who makes a living by aiding citizens in cold cases — believed his father’s fall to his death off the side of a cliff years ago was no accident. However, both Dory and Russell have different perspectives on how things really went down all those years ago.
Speaking on Russell and Dory’s return, Reid added, “If we can drop a few bombs into Colter’s life with those characters and then see how he wrestles with those, then we’ll earn them coming back to sort of sort out.”
Continuing, Reid explained that Dory’s “point of view about what [Colter] should do” is for the survivalist to “just forget about [their father’s death] and leave it.”
“And then you look at Jensen’s character Russell, he seems to have sort of put it all away in a box in some way and kind of just dealt with it. But you’ll learn in Episode 2, he’s got very different memories of something that happened in their past that Colter has no memory of.” In Season 1, Russell, who insists his hands are clean in their father’s death, revealed that he remembered someone else being in the woods the night their father died.
He also admitted to recognizing the unidentified man, telling Colter that he had seen the man speaking with their mother before their father’s death. After dropping those bombs on his brother, the two parted ways on better terms. However, the new details appeared to only bring about more questions for Colter going into Season 2 after discovering that his main suspect, Russell, didn’t have a hand in their father’s death after all. “At least not in the capacity the Colter thought he did,” Reid told the outlet. “So there’s more story to tell there.”
Tracker is available to stream on Paramount Plus.
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