Tracker: Jensen Ackles Cast as Colter’s Brother Russell — Get Air Date and Plot
Colter Shaw’s family tree is now complete.
CBS’s Tracker has tapped Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, The Boys) to play Colter’s estranged brother Russell. The casting was first confirmed by Colter himself, Justin Hartley, who shared a video with his new TV brother on Instagram on Thursday.
TVLine can now confirm that Ackles will guest star on Sunday, May 12 (CBS, 9/8c), in the penultimate episode of Season 1, “Off the Books.” The official synopsis for the hour is as follows:
Colter is forced to team up with his estranged brother, Russell, who enlists his help in tracking down an old military buddy who has gone missing after weeks of paranoid behavior. The investigation takes the brothers into a world of Special Forces missions, shady off-the-books schemes, and conspiracy theories, all while grappling with their family’s past.
News of Ackles’ casting comes two weeks after Hartley shared that Manifest’s Melissa Roxburgh has been cast as Colter and Russell’s sister, Dory. She’ll debut in Episode 11, which airs Sunday, May 5.
Colter Shaw’s family tree is now complete.
CBS’ Tracker has tapped Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, The Boys) to play Colter’s estranged brother, Russell. The casting was first confirmed by Colter himself, Justin Hartley, who shared a video with his new TV brother on Instagram on Thursday.
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TVLine can now confirm that Ackles will guest star on Sunday, May 12 (CBS, 9/8c), in the penultimate episode of Season 1, “Off the Books.” The official synopsis for the hour is as follows:
Colter is forced to team up with his estranged brother, Russell, who enlists his help in tracking down a former military friend who has gone missing after weeks of paranoid behavior. The investigation takes the brothers into a world of Special Forces missions, shady off-the-books schemes, and conspiracy theories, all while they grapple with their family’s past.
CBS
The news of Ackles’ casting comes two weeks after Hartley shared that Manifest’s Melissa Roxburgh has been cast as Colter and Russell’s younger sister, Dory. She will debut in Episode 11, which airs Sunday, May 5.
The February 11 premiere of Tracker introduced This Is Us veteran Hartley as Colter Shaw, a lone survivor who roams the country and uses his expert tracking skills to help private citizens and law enforcement solve all sorts of mysteries… while dealing with his own broken family.
That’s when things get interesting.
Flashbacks reveal that Colter and his siblings—including an older brother, Russell, and a younger sister, Dory—had an unusual childhood. Their parents, Ashton and Mary (played by Oz’s Lee Tergesen and Good Sam’s Wendy Crewson), “were professors at Berkeley until something happened with my dad,” Colter explains. “So he took us to live off the grid at this cabin. It was actually a compound near the Sierra National Forest,” where Ashton “started talking about people trying to get him and how we all had to be prepared. He taught us how to track, how to hunt, and how to free climb at this place called Devil’s Notch.”
One night in 2003, when Mary wasn’t home, Ashton’s paranoia got the better of him and he ran away, leaving his three children behind. Russell chased after him, and an hour later, Colter found his father dead, at the foot of Devil’s Notch. It appears he was pushed by Russell.
Russell has now tried to contact Colter. It seems there’s something Colter “needs to know.” However, Mary—who hasn’t been seen since Episode 2—wants Colter to ignore her brother’s pleas. And he’s been avoiding his calls ever since.
Tracker was previously renewed for Season 2. New episodes air Sundays at 9/8c on CBS (and stream the next day on Paramount+); the Season 1 finale airs May 19.
