Tracker has experienced some significant behind-the-scenes changes — but how will those changes impact season 4?
“It is different,” executive producer Elwood Reid exclusively told Us of the series’ upcoming season, adding that the shakeup is “really refreshing.”
“I have not shot a show in L.A. in 12 or 13 years,” he said. “What I think is really exciting about it — at least for my purposes — is you forget how good the level of craftspeople are out here. And for them, when you’re going into season 4 of a show, it’s all new for them.”
He continued, “Canada was amazing. We made an amazing show up there. I will say this from a writing standpoint, from a production standpoint and also [star] Justin [Hartley] will probably tell you the same thing, you just get reinvigorated by moving a show. Then when you add in all these amazing department people that you can work with, the sky is the limit.”
After filming three seasons in Vancouver, news broke in May that Tracker was awarded $48 million on $129 million in qualified expenditures, prompting its move. Tracker is 20th Television’s biggest series to return to California with the help of a tax credit.
“Anything you pitch, they can do [in California]. That’s why they’re in Hollywood. They’re the best. So that’s been awesome,” Reid teased. “Also whenever I wanted to cast someone outside of the Canadian casting system, I had to bring them up to Canada and that’s a whole thing. I can get people that live locally in California — amazing actors that come out and do two days worth of work. So I’m just on the ground floor of really flexing the California muscles and feeling what that feels like.”
Reid promised the show “looks amazing” in season 4.
“It looks big, it looks expensive. I know the studio doesn’t want to hear that, but every dollar is going up on screen,” he quipped. “I just feel like we’re really in the fourth season where I always feel like you get settled in and it’s shaken us up in a good way. I think Justin would say the same thing.”
Currently, tax credits for relocation are being awarded to shows for their projected outsized economic effect, with jobs being created for Los Angeles-based crews and local businesses being boosted by returning production.
TV shows can earn an additional 5 percent tax credit bonus — on top of the 35 percent base credit — for qualified expenditures incurred outside the 30-mile zone that covers the Greater Los Angeles area and surrounding communities, according to Deadline.
Tracker, meanwhile, is focused on continuing to allow the show to evolve organically.
“The overall theme of the show, which is how can we test and challenge Colter morally and physically,” he shared. It’s at risk when you get into all TV shows, long-running network shows, the characters become infallible and become superheroes.”
Reid wanted to do something different on screen, adding, “There’s nothing wrong with that. I think that one of the strengths of Justin as an actor is he has access to this sort of emotional component or dynamic that a lot of leading men tend not to have. They tend just to be good looking guys in suits and women in suits that are always right.”
The screenwriter continued, “What does it look like when he fails or makes a mistake and that costs somebody their life or doesn’t get a result? Those are the things that I’m excited about getting into and Justin this year, playing with him this year that way.”
Tracker returns to CBS Sunday, October 4, at 9:30 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Paramount+.
