Justin Hartley Teases Tracker Season 2 Addressing Surprising Cast Exit

Tracker fans will probably get answers sooner rather than later about that surprising cast exit.

Lead and executive producer Justin Hartley teased some of the season 2 story lines for the main characters, telling TV Insider on Wednesday, September 4, “At the end of last season, Reenie [Fiona Rene] 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 [Abby McEnany] and you’ll see a lot of the two of them working together, which is a really interesting dynamic.”

Velma being paired off in scenes with Reenie comes after Robin Weigert, who played Teddi, exited the show. Teddi and Velma were a married couple who helped Colter solve his missing persons cases for the reward. Now Velma will pivot to a new job while her wife isn’t around to help with the cases as she usually would.

“[Reenie and Velma] both have common goals with just some completely different ways of going about their business,” Hartley continued. “Bobby [Eric Graise] our computer whiz, is hacking away. Then we have a couple of really cool surprises coming for Reenie.”

Hartley also explained how Jensen Ackles and Melissa Roxburgh would return to play his character Colter’s siblings despite their busy schedules. (After both being introduced in the first season, Ackles booked the upcoming Prime Video thriller series Countdown while Roxburgh is set to lead the NBC midseason drama The Hunting Party.)

“[Melissa]’s show ends [production] way before we end so we can bring her back in the latter episodes of our show,” the actor noted. “And then Jennifer Morrison‘s coming back to direct episode 6. I’m sure her character will be back.”

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 procedural aspect of the show has allowed Tracker to introduce some star-studded cameos from actors such as Ackles, Roxburgh and even Hartley’s wife, Sofia Pernas.

“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,” Hartley shared with Deadline in May about the season 2 vision. “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.”

Hartley quipped that viewers can expect Colter to have even more run-ins with the law, saying, “We do have a running joke though, of how many times Colter has broken the law. Our grips department put together a list and it’s ridiculous. My idea was to have, maybe at the end of season 2, my wrap gift to everyone is going to be a hoodie that lists all of the things that he’s done.”

He continued: “Like assault, breaking and entering, kidnapping, all that stuff. But it’s a long list already. Every episode, he’s doing something illegal, right?”

Tracker returns to CBS on Sunday, October 13 at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.