Justin Hartley‘s Tracker has gone through several shocking cast exits — and there could be more reconfiguration in the future.

During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, executive producer Elwood Reid defended the decision to shake up season 3 with Velma (Abby McEnany) and Bobby’s (Eric Graise) surprise departures.

“Justin has to carry so much of the show. So I don’t want the other characters that are in the show to just be phone-a-friend where whenever he’s in trouble, he just picks up the phone. The challenge in season 3 has been how do we build actual good story out of [it],” Reid teased ahead of the Sunday, October 19, premiere.

Reid pointed out that Reenie (Fiona Rene) and Randy (Chris Lee) are still in the picture.

“Reenie takes a lot of the guilt [from her season 2 case] on and she’s brought Randy up there to fix it. You get to see them in the office. That forms a good bond between those two. Then we’re going to bring in another character as she tries to expand her law office a little bit. That will be interesting,” he continued. “It’s just building out those story lines. The challenge we set up for ourselves this season was to build out those people’s world a little bit.”

Reid continued: “It’s about trying to get a little bit of lightness [into the show] because sometimes Colter is doing some really dark and heavy stuff. It’s life or death.”

Since Tracker premiered in February 2024, viewers have tuned in week after week to see Colter (Hartley) travel the country to help solve various missing persons cases. As Colter has gotten help, the ensemble cast has grown with characters such as handlers Teddi (Robin Weigert) and Velma, hacker Bobby and attorney Reenie.

Season 3 will pick up after Colter’s Velma and Bobby (Graise) exited the series. Overall, Weigert, McEnany and Graise have all left Tracker in the first two seasons. According to Reid, this doesn’t mean viewers shouldn’t be worried about more onscreen shakeups.

“You never know. The only person that is safe is Justin. It is Tracker and he’s on the poster. For any show — and it’s going into its third season — it has to grow. When I mean grow, I don’t mean bigger car chases or plane stunts. I mean grow the characters out in a meaningful way and in many ways,” he explained. “If I’m asking you to spend an hour of your life with this show, I do think you need to get some emotion and some connection to these characters. Part of that is making them three-dimensional characters that exist outside of helping Colter again. He got this whole dark history in the past and we mine that. But that means the other characters have to have some stuff in their life. Everyone has to have their thing. I think that’s super important.”

While addressing the casting shifts, Reid acknowledged mixed reactions from viewers.

“None of these people are gone. They’re not dead. We always try to build out and expand those characters,” he continued. “We’ve got a good team in place and we’re going to bring in another character.”

Tracker returns to CBS on Sunday, October 19, at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Paramount+.

Justin Hartley‘s Tracker has faced several surprise cast exits — but what is Chris Lee‘s status on the show?

Before news broke in July about Eric Graise and Abby McEnany exiting the show, executive producer Elwood Reid addressed Lee’s future as Randy.

“Randy came in and also gave something to the show that was different. There was a real warmth and fun when he came in,” Reid exclusively told Us Weekly. “It was something that I think we were missing a little bit too in some episodes. He just was immediately fun when he came in.”

Reid confirmed viewers haven’t seen the last of Randy, adding, “With those dynamics — and in playing with this team dynamics — that’s all stuff we’re going to continue to play with in season 3 as the show evolves.”

He continued: “We’re going to bring back some characters from seasons 1 and 2 — we’re going to see them more and more. There’s been some fun characters that I think are fun to see in Colter’s world [season to season].”

Despite Robin Weigert’s past departure, Reid clarified it wouldn’t be a “revolving door” of team members.

“I do think it’s evolving. If I can’t evolve those characters — Randy or Reenie or Bobby — they’re not just people that just pick up the phone and go, ‘OK, here is the answer.’ That’s when the show is phoning it in,” he explained. “The challenge is when you got to learn about them, which I thought was interesting. That’s the challenge of the show is not having it fall into a formula.”

Tracker follows survivalist Colter (Hartley) as he travels the country to help find missing people, track down information on criminal cases and more. Every episode shows Colter getting help from his team — handler Teddi (Weigert), hacker Bobby (Graise} and attorney Reenie (Fiona Rene).

Graise was noticeably absent from six episodes in season 2, which is when his cousin Randy was brought in to help Colter before Bobby returned. Bobby’s absence caused backlash from viewers who grew used to seeing Graise on their screen.

“It’s one of those things where actor availability is always an issue. There have been shows where people don’t even notice [if a character is missing],” Reid told Us. “You don’t [always] see Reenie. [Colter] talks to Velma for two seconds. He may talk to Bobby for one phone call. The show works because you are over Justin’s shoulder. One of the challenges in season 3 is going to be reconfiguring the team and figuring out what that team looks like.”

According to Reid, a priority for the show is making sure Tracker doesn’t “fall into complacency.”

“I don’t want the show to be ‘phone a friend’ every week,” Reid added. “I think that gets old and Justin is always challenging me on that. He’s like, ‘Do we need to do this? Do I need to call Bobby all the time? Can I do this?’”

Tracker is currently streaming on Paramount+.