Justin HartleyColter participated in a near-death experience follower after viewers expressed concerns about the character’s fate.
During the Sunday, Nov. 30 episode of the hit CBS series, Colter encountered a man desperate to find his daughter after she disappeared while working a courier route. Later, Colter suffered a mysterious disappearance related to a wealthy family.
While investigating the woman’s disappearance, Colter he realized his brakes were tampered with with while driving. Colter ended up in a car crash while trying to get the car to stop, which is when the person in charge assaulted him. Colter prevailed and then killed the hitman.
The incident comes after Hartley, 48, warned fans that the character might die in the future.
Ever since Tracker premiered on CBS, Justin Hartley has taken it upon himself to remind viewers that his character Colter Shaw can and will die. Based on the novel The Never Game by Jeffery Deaver, Tracker focuses on a survivor named Colter who travels the country helping to find missing people (or sometimes dogs) and solving cases (…)
“It’s important to keep raising the stakes. I like being Colter as a hero, finding people and all that. I also really like seeing him in a suspense thriller and a dangerous situation,” he said. The Hollywood Reporter in April “I don’t want our audience to forget that this man is mortal, he’s not a superhero. He can die! The things he’s doing are very dangerous.”
based on Jeffery Deaverthe novel of The game of never, follower centers around Colterwho travels the country helping to find missing people (or sometimes dogs) and solving cases that others couldn’t or wouldn’t. Hartley, who is also an executive producer, hinted at how far the show will take his character.
“I love that when you watch a show like this and you tune into Season 1 and then you tune into the last season, you see the character development and you’re like, ‘Wait a minute, are they playing different roles?’ But then if you watch it over the years, you experience those things with the characters,” he previously told TV Insider in September 2024. “As competent and confident as Colter is, I don’t think for a second that he doesn’t have a lot to learn, especially about him and his family and all that.”
Hartley continued, “Going forward, I think that’s how the show is going to live in the long run, is that we keep developing this character and he gets better at what he’s doing. He’s a restless man, and for an audience member, at least the shows that I love to watch, you love to see the growth of a character and we have that.”
Most recently, executive producer Elwood Reid he considered Colter’s fate, explaining we in October, “Part of the danger here is because he’s not a cop. He’s this guy who’s poking his nose in some places. The network is always like, ‘He can screw up, he can lose a fight, he can get stuck in the head, and he can have a gun pointed at him.'” Justin pitched an idea for the midseason finale of season three where things don’t go well for Colter. That’s what makes him funny is that he’s not a superhero.”
Reid noted that Tracker always is slooking for ways to surprise spectators
“When I watch a lot of these kinds of shows, when the character becomes infallible or perfect, I’m not interested,” Reid explained. “I like when characters are flawed and they make mistakes and they’re deadly and they can be hurt and they can be damaged.”
He continued, “I’m very conscious of not making Colter too perfect. We’re sweeping him up, letting him go bad. I think that’s what makes the character fun to write, at least for me.”
follower airs Sundays on CBS at 8:00 PM ET before rebroadcasting the next day on Paramount+.