Tracker has already made multiple cast changes — and is planning to bring in even more new characters — but has the shake-up been successful?
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, executive producer Elwood Reid addresses Mel’s (Cassady McClincy Zhang) introduction to the show through Reenie (Fiona Rene).
“It’s interesting because I do think for the show to work, Renee in that world of the office has to stand on its own,” he explained. “Or be able to tell stories on its own. Back in the day, when we only had Reenie just sitting around waiting for Colter to call, that didn’t work.”
Reid recalled having to make changes. “We brought Randy in there on purpose to see if that would work. That worked — really well,” he noted. “It’s just so fun to see the two of them together. But then we wanted to bring in some female viewpoints. That was Mel and we built that.”
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According to Reid, this isn’t the end when it comes to new characters. “We’re bringing another character in, which you’re going to see for the first time in episode 11,” he hinted. “That character is going to come in under the guise of bringing Reenie work, but we’re going to realize that this thing becomes something bigger. So it’ll be a fun character.”
He continued: “It’s building that world out vs. Reenie just answering the phone call and telling Colter some fact about the case. It is about making the characters three dimensional and following them home a little bit. We’re going to do that more with Reenie, which I think is going to pay off.”
Reid’s insight came before Kathleen Robertson and Mark Engelhardt were cast on Tracker in recurring roles. Robertson will play Maxine, who is described as “a successful attorney at a major firm looking to engage” Reenie in what “Maxine assures her is simply grunt work for an upcoming class action suit.” It quickly becomes clear, however, that “Maxine may have an entirely different game that she’s playing.”
Engelhardt, meanwhile, will play Emile Lang, who is “a man with his own moral code.” The newcomer is “cold, calculating and methodical,” per his character description.
Along with leading man Colter (Justin Hartley), the ensemble cast of Tracker has grown with handlers Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma, hacker Bobby (Eric Graise) and attorney Reenie. After joining Tracker in season 1, Weigert’s character was written off in the premiere as Velma, her wife, admitted that they needed some distance. Velma then started working with Reenie and Teddi wasn’t discussed again in season 2.
Concern for the show’s main characters kept coming when Graise was noticeably absent from six episodes. His cousin Randy (Chris Lee) was brought in to help Colter before Bobby returned, which caused some backlash from viewers who grew to become fans of Graise.
News later broke that Graise and McEnany wouldn’t be coming back — at least for now.
“I do think it’s evolving. If I can’t evolve those characters — Randy or Reenie or Bobby — they’re not just people that just pick up the phone and go, ‘OK, here is the answer.’ That’s when the show is phoning it in,” Reid exclusively told Us in May. “The challenge is when you got to learn about them, which I thought was interesting. That’s the challenge of the show is not having it fall into a formula.”
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Reid noted that they didn’t want Tracker to “fall into complacency.”
“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,” Reid teased. “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.”
In his latest interview with Us, Reid weighed in on the onscreen changes. “What we’re realizing is there are characters that come on that if it worked, we’d bring them back,” he noted. “I do think the show can’t always do that. But when it does do that, it makes the world feel a little bit more connected.”
Reid noted there was only one constant on the show: Hartley’s fan-favorite character.
“The audience leans in because they’ve seen that character before. But I think they’re still thinking the central DNA of the show is Colter. With this guy, what makes him appealing is he is a mystery to himself,” he added. “He’s a mystery to the audience. We see him and his off time putting together some pieces of his past.”
He concluded: “I don’t know if we’ll ever put it all together, but he’s going to struggle to continue to do that. That’s just as far as we have thought. The biggest improvement we made this year — in my opinion — was getting people in the same room. Just that connectivity, I do think the audience is enjoying seeing their characters in the same place physically.”
Tracker returns to CBS Sunday, March 1, at 9 p.m. ET.
