CBS’ hit series Tracker has lost three cast members before season 3 — but what has the show’s lead and executive producer Justin Hartley said about the ongoing changes?
Hartley is the reason many Tracker fans started watching the show when it premiered in February 2024. Following a six-year stint on NBC’s This Is Us, Hartley scored his own show, which introduced fictional survivalist Colter Shaw as he travels the country to help solve various missing persons cases.
A side plot has since emerged that has dug deeper into Colter’s family life, including how his dad’s mysterious death might have been at the hands of someone Colter knows. But while most of the show is rooted in Colter’s story lines, the audience grew to love Colter’s team: handlers Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma (Abby McEnany), hacker Bobby (Eric Graise) and attorney Reenie (Fiona Rene).
Imagine Us‘ surprise when Weigert left before season 2 started filming. From there, season 2 brought in Chris Lee‘s character, Randy, to take over as Colter’s computer whiz while Graise was absent from six episodes. It was later confirmed that Graise and McEnany were the next main cast members to depart the series before season 3.
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“It’s one of those things where actor availability is always an issue. There have been shows where people don’t even notice [if a character is missing],” executive producer Elwood Reid previously told Us Weekly in May 2025 before news broke about Graise and McEnany’s exits. “Randy came in and also gave something to the show that was different. There was a real warmth and fun when he came in. It was something that I think we were missing a little bit too in some episodes. He just was immediately fun when he came in.”
Reid continued: “With those dynamics — and in playing with this team dynamics — that’s all stuff we’re going to continue to play with in season 3 as the show evolves. We’re going to bring back some characters from seasons 1 and 2 — we’re going to see them more and more. There’s been some fun characters that I think are fun to see in Colter’s world [season to season].”
At the time, Reid noted that Tracker has “no rules,” adding, “The only rule I really have of the show is each week Colter is going to come to a new place and there’s going to be a new case. How he gets those answers and what he uses on the team, that’s all something that’s up for grabs. Meeting these [local] weird characters is something we’re going to try to do more of as the season goes on. Just Colter coming in and interacting with other characters. That’s fun to see Justin flex those muscles with really good guest cast members.”
Hartley, however, has remained more tight-lipped about the onscreen shakeups. Keep scrolling to see his rare comments about how Tracker will evolve with the changes:
Adjusting to the Changes
After Weigert’s exit, Hartley teased how season 2 would adjust, telling TV Insider in September 2024, “At the end of last season, Reenie decides that she’s leaving her firm and going to go it on her own. She’s got that big life change and, in a way, she teams up with Velma and you’ll see a lot of the two of them working together, which is a really interesting dynamic.”
He continued: “[Reenie and Velma] both have common goals with just some completely different ways of going about their business. Bobby, our computer whiz, is hacking away. Then we have a couple of really cool surprises coming for Reenie.”
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Focusing on Colter
Hartley told The Hollywood Reporter in April 2025 that he wanted to make sure Tracker “wasn’t your typical procedural show.”
“As the character does these jobs and as these people enter and leave his life, I wanted to make sure that he’s affected by them, and that this character evolves,” he shared about Colter meeting new people week to week. “So if you’re watching episode 10 of season 1, and you watch episode 10 of season 2, it’s important to me that we showed that this character grows, has evolved and has learned.”
The actor hinted that Tracker has “many more stories to tell.”
“Now we’re in new territory. We have a couple of ideas. One of these is that Colter has all of these skills. He’s a survivalist and he knows how to be alone, and he knows how to find people and he’s gifted in that regard. He’s a great listener,” he said. “But it would be interesting, I think, to see him be set up. … I’d love to have all that tie into the family background, the government. So, we’ll see. We’ve been kicking that idea around. We have a lot of different stuff that we’re talking about. We have the underlying theme of what we’re going to do next year, while not really changing the direction of where our story is going.”
Shaking Things Up
While speaking to Us after the season 2 finale, Reid noted how they make sure Tracker doesn’t “fall into complacency.”
“I don’t want the show to be phone-a-friend every week. I think that gets old, and Justin is always challenging me on that. He’s like, ‘Do we need to do this? Do I need to call Bobby all the time? Can I do this?’” he noted to Us in May 2025 about Hartley’s reaction. “You don’t [always] see Reenie. He talks to Velma for two seconds. He may talk to Bobby for one phone call. The show works because you are over Justin’s shoulder.”
