Tracker Season 4 is getting closer to its October premiere on the 2026 TV schedule, and fans should be getting more excited. Jensen Ackles is set to return as Russell Shaw early in the new season. Additionally, there will be some changes coming, and I’m talking about in-story. Justin Hartley shared what’s in store for Colter in the fourth season, and I’m breathing a big sigh of relief.
It’s no secret that Hartley’s Colter Shaw has been through the wringer on Tracker, both emotionally and physically. Season 3 really put him to the test after finding out the truth about his father and nearly getting killed on more than one occasion. Luckily, Hartley tells Entertainment Weekly that Colter will be in “a better place” when the fourth season premieres, and this makes me so happy:
He’s a little looser. I think all that family drama getting — I don’t want to say ‘wrapped up’ because I don’t really think it was wrapped up — but a lot of it was unpacked, shall we say. And I think a lot of that burden is off of him.
Since the first season, Tracker made sure that fans knew the Shaw family was a bit complicated. The truth about Colter’s father and mother really drove a wedge between the family, with Colter and Russell slowly getting back to normal after being estranged for years. I’m relieved to know that most of that is finally in the past, which makes me want Melissa Roxburgh to return as Dory even more now to get a nice family scene with all the siblings.
Meanwhile, as Colter lets go of the family drama, he will also be lightening up just a tad. Colter’s story was turned upside down last season, and things will be a tad different going into the new season. Hartley revealed what the rewardist’s mindset will be like in Season 4, and I think this is just what he needs after all that he’s been through:
[In season 4], you’ll start to see him do things and behave in his personal life in certain ways that we haven’t before. He becomes available to things that he wasn’t available to before. He’s opening up to different relationships and starting to care about more things and more people, and it makes him more vulnerable, especially in his line of work. So I think we’ll see that story, and then, hopefully as an audience member, you’re sitting here going, ‘Oh, man, I really want this for this guy, but he really can’t have that because if he does, he’s putting people in danger.’
Colter has always been a bit uptight, and not so willing to trust people at first. It can take him a while to warm up to someone, and while he has a great team, he’s still not as open as he should be. He is a lone wolf, and the fact that that looks to be changing, at least just a little bit, next season, is exciting. He’s becoming more vulnerable, but it sounds like he’ll still be a bit closed off for fear of anything happening to anyone he gets close to, which is understandable given his line of work. I am looking forward to the kind of dynamics that come out of this, though, and how they might even help him in the long run.
It won’t be too long until fans find out what is going on with Colter. Season 4 of Tracker premieres on Sunday, October 4 at 9:30 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day with a Paramount+ subscription. Subsequent episodes will air on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET in its regular timeslot.
