Justin Hartley‘s Tracker has passed through several shocking forged exits — and there could possibly be more reconfiguration in the long run.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, executive producer Elwood Reid defended the choice to shake up season 3 with Velma (Abby McEnany) and Bobby’s (Eric Graise) surprise departures.
“Justin has to hold a lot of the show. So I don’t want the opposite characters which are within the show to only be phone-a-friend where at any time when he’s in trouble, he just picks up the phone. The challenge in season 3 has been how will we construct actual good story out of [it],” Reid teased ahead of the Sunday, October 19, premiere.
Reid identified that Reenie (Fiona Rene) and Randy (Chris Lee) are still in the image.
“Reenie takes lots of the guilt [from her season 2 case] on and he or she’s brought Randy up there to repair it. You get to see them within the office. That forms a superb bond between those two. Then we’re going to usher in one other character as she tries to expand her law office slightly bit. That will probably be interesting,” he continued. “It’s just constructing out those story lines. The challenge we arrange for ourselves this season was to construct out those people’s world slightly bit.”
Reid continued: “It’s about attempting to get slightly little bit of lightness [into the show] because sometimes Colter is performing some really dark and heavy stuff. It’s life or death.”
Since Tracker premiered in February 2024, viewers have tuned in week after week to see Colter (Hartley) travel the country to assist solve various missing individuals cases. As Colter has gotten help, the ensemble forged has grown with characters resembling handlers Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma, hacker Bobby and attorney Reenie.
Season 3 will pick up after Colter’s Velma and Bobby (Graise) exited the series. Overall, Weigert, McEnany and Graise have all left Tracker in the primary two seasons. In response to Reid, this doesn’t mean viewers shouldn’t be anxious about more onscreen shakeups.
Justin Hartley’s Tracker is definitely CBS’ biggest hit show — so why has it passed through three forged shakeups in only two seasons? When Tracker premiered in 2024, it introduced Us to survivalist Colter Shaw (Hartley) as he travels the country to assist find missing people, track down information on criminal cases and more. The […]
“You never know. The one person who is protected is Justin. It’s Tracker and he’s on the poster. For any show — and it’s going into its third season — it has to grow. After I mean grow, I don’t mean larger automotive chases or plane stunts. I mean grow the characters out in a meaningful way and in some ways,” he explained. “If I’m asking you to spend an hour of your life with this show, I do think you’ll want to get some emotion and a few connection to those characters. A part of that’s making them three-dimensional characters that exist outside of helping Colter again. He got this whole dark history previously and we mine that. But which means the opposite characters must have some stuff of their life. Everyone has to have their thing. I feel that’s super necessary.”
While addressing the casting shifts, Reid acknowledged mixed reactions from viewers.
“None of those individuals are gone. They’re not dead. We at all times try to construct out and expand those characters,” he continued. “We’ve got a superb team in place and we’re going to usher in one other character.”
Tracker returns to CBS on Sunday, October 19, at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the subsequent day on Paramount+.