‘Tracker’ EP Addresses Whether They Will Recast Jensen Ackles and Melissa Roxburgh for Season 2
Tracker fans finally got an answer about whether Jensen Ackles and Melissa Roxburgh will be recast ahead of season 2.
During the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour on Saturday, July 14, Justin Hartley confirmed that Ackles, 46, is coming back as his character Colter’s brother, Russell, saying, “We got him. He’s coming back. We’re having fun with that. It’s a great story.”
Executive producer Elwood Reid, meanwhile, teased that Ackles was locked in for several episodes. Reid was later asked by TVLine about Roxburgh’s status on the show after she played Colter and Russell’s sister, Dory, in season 1, adding, “We’ll unpeel some more stuff with his sister.”
The clarification comes after fans were concerned that Ackles and Roxburgh’s roles would have to be recast. After both being introduced in the first season, Ackles booked the upcoming Prime Video thriller series Countdown while Roxburgh, 31, is set to lead the NBC midseason drama The Hunting Party.
Tracker, which premiered in February, follows survivalist Colter as he travels the country to help solve missing person cases, track down information on criminal cases and more. The season 1 finale introduced Colter’s childhood friend Lizzy (Jennifer Morrison), which revealed some unexpected secrets about his past.
Colter got more information about his dad’s mysterious murder after Lizzie revealed that her mother had an affair with Colter’s dad. Their parents had a fight before Colter’s dad died and Lizzie later found a box her mother hid that was full of work from Colter’s dad, which she gave to Dory but it was never mentioned to Colter.
Hartley, 47, weighed in on where the story goes from here, telling Deadline in May, “We have a whole other season to shoot that we have to make better than Season 1. So while we wanted all those story lines wrapped up, we also wanted those bows to sort of lead to other questions — bigger, deeper questions — about his past. So I think we did that in answering some of these questions that we had built up all year. I think we did a good job of making sure that the answers to those questions then lead to a bigger mystery, something that we can unpack in season 2.”
The actor also discussed where Colter stands with his older brother after accusing Russell of being behind their dad’s death.
“Does Colter think that he pushed him off the cliff now? Probably not,” he added. “But does he think that he had nothing to do with anything or doesn’t have any knowledge about his father’s death? And that he’s completely in the dark just like Colter is? I don’t think that’s the case either.”
More recently, Hartley opened up to Us Weekly about potential plans to cast more of his This Is Us costars on Tracker.
“If I had my way, I would have them all on at the same time, but it’s a different show,” he said on Saturday. “I mean, look, imagine a life where you get to do exactly what you want to be doing. They call it work. I love what I do. And doing it with people that you absolutely love that are extremely talented. That’s how I feel about all those people. So at any time, I would love to have them all on. Absolutely.”
