Young and the Restless Alum Justin Hartley Explains the Real Reason Why He Took on Tracker

When Justin Hartley was wrapping up his successful run as Kevin Pearson on the acclaimed This Is Us, he had a big decision to make — what series would he tackle next? He recently explained why he was intrigued by Tracker and the role of Colter Shaw, a man who makes his living by aiding law enforcement and private citizens with important cases.

Tracking Down Tracker

At the summer TV Critics press tour in Pasadena, Calif., Hartley appeared on a panel with the show’s producers, including Ken Olin, a former This Is Us director, best known to TV viewers for his role as Michael on thirtysomething, and cast to discuss the hit new series.

Asked why he took on this particular part, the former Young and the Restless actor revealed, “Ken brought me this book. [He] and I have been talking about working together after This Is Us. It’s something we really wanted to do. And he found this book, and he said, ‘I think you’ve got to read this book. I really love this character.’

“He didn’t tell me anything about the book,” Y&R’s former Adam Newman continues, “He just said, ‘I really love the character. Read this book. See if you like it.’ And I loved it. I loved the character, I loved the book, and then I also realized that there’s a huge challenge of taking — adapting something that is a novel, that is a book, into something that’s made for the screen, so that’s where he came into play.

“But one of the things that I was immediately drawn to was the fact that we could have — the potential of having a character on TV that isn’t sort of an action-adventure show, thriller, that carries a gun, that is very much in danger all the time, that is a hero, that is not an anti-hero necessarily, that has, I guess, a sorted family past, but he’s not haunted by it in terms of like how he deals with other people necessarily in a bad way,” the actor muses.

“And I guess I just thought — I don’t know if I’ve seen that where you have this guy who’s a true hero, who leads with his heart,” says Justin Hartley, who also serves as one of the show’s executive producers. “There’s something very, I think, masculine about that. And it’s something that you go, ‘Wow, okay, so he’s taking on these certain jobs not just for the money.’ He always gets paid, but not necessarily for the money, but for the impact that it has on him. And the reason that is, is because this guy leads with his heart, and you just don’t necessarily see, or at least I don’t necessarily see that when you think of characters like this.”

Tracker returns for Season 2 on Sunday, October 27 at 8 p.m. on CBS. (Tracker airs after a double NFL game so the show may be delayed by approximately a half an hour in some markets.)