'Tracker' Star Justin Hartley Says Unapologetic 'Masculinity' Is the Show's Secret Weapon
The action-mystery series Tracker is more than a little old school. While the most recent Season 2 finale ended on a cliffhanger, teasing one of the series' long-running mysteries, the popularity of the show isn't just connected to big prestige TV mystery boxes. Instead, one of the reasons we love settling into Tracker episodes is that a vast majority of those adventures are self-contained. And, most crucially, the titular protagonist of the series — Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) — is a unique blend of a modern man, with a healthy dose of TV heroes of old.
"One of the things I really love about Colter and the way we've built him is that he doesn't apologize for his masculinity," Justin Hartley tells Men's Journal. "I think that's what people are looking for. You're asking yourself, 'What kind of people do I want to hang out with?' And particularly: 'What kind of male friends do I have in my life that I really value?' I think we've crafted a character that is so emotionally evolved, and he really does want to get to the root of why people do things."
If you've not seen the series, Tracker is based on the killer 2019 novel The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver. Week after week, Colter acts as a kind of detective who locates missing people in different kinds of cases. While there's an overarching mystery in the show connected to the fate of Colter's father years prior, Tracker succeeds because so many of the adventures are episodic.
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"The facts are that [executive producer] Ken Olin and I set out to do a show that was in fact a throwback," Hartley explains. "We wanted a new spin on a procedural, meaning our character would evolve over time. He would not just remain the same exact person every single week. We were hopeful people would like it. People ended up loving it. I think there's a huge appetite for this kind of show."
Hartley is also acutely aware of another popular action protagonist who comes from popular thriller novels, Reacher. And he certainly doesn't mind if people put Tracker in a similar category. "I'm not sure we're in a Renaissance period for these kinds of shows, but I think the proof is in the pudding. I mean, look at Reacher. It's more serialized, but it's the same kind of thing," Hartley says. "People like a hero. They like to root for a hero, so I think there's a huge audience for that beyond just Tracker."
He's got a point. And the nice thing about Colter in Tracker is he's clearly a hardcore man's man, without being a jerk about it. "He's a man through and through. And that doesn't mean you have to be the loudest person in the room and know every single f*cking thing and throw tables around and scream and shout and yell and smoke and drink," Hartley explains. "He's all about talking with people. Reading people. Understanding them. He's an all-encompassing man. He's not just a guy. He's a man."
Tracker Seasons 1 and 2 air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. Season 3 is expected in late 2025.
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