Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) is back on the case. After Follower The hit CBS drama, which debuted earlier this year as the most-watched new show on network television, about a lone wolf who uses his expert tracking skills to solve mysteries across the country, returns for a super-sized 22-episode second season. which promises to answer the burning questions raised in the final minutes of the first season.

When viewers last saw Colter, he learned a devastating secret from Lizzy (Jennifer Morrison), a close family friend whose missing daughter he had just tracked down. Lizzy told Colter that shortly before his father Ashton died under mysterious circumstances, he had an affair with Lizzy’s mother. After her mother’s death, Lizzy found a box of Ashton’s research papers and diaries in a box under her bed. Lizzy sent that box to Colter’s sister, Dory (Melissa Roxburgh), who neglected to mention that she had their father’s belongings during her last meeting with Colter.

The revelation is enough to fool Colter, and he is now forced to question everything he thought he knew about his father’s death and how much he could trust his surviving relatives. But instead of opening the new season with Colter opening up about his father’s affair (and his mother’s possible knowledge of his infidelity), executive producer and showrunner Elwood Reid wanted to throw the main character into a major personal matter that becomes a thorn has been in sight. his side.

“What we’ve built in is that he has a case that has been his nightmare for a decade. It’s the thing that’s haunted him. He’s never solved the case, and we’re going to meet a woman he’s involved with that’s connected to that case.” Reid told TV Guide at the Television Critics Association press tour in July. “You’ll see in the first episode how he deals with the grief and the mystery of not being able to solve that case. He doesn’t always deal with his emotions outwardly, and that comes out in a different way, and I think that’s the trick and the challenge of writing this character.

Executive producer Ken Olin – who developed this series based on Jeffrey Deaver’s The Never Gamefrom the ground up with Hartley – said the creative team has always wanted to portray Colter as a classic male hero with “a very contemporary psychological backstory” that makes him feel more emotionally accessible.

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“One of the things that I’m just now realizing that’s so cool about Colter, as he’s evolved or delineated by Elwood, is that we gave him a very complicated, dysfunctional family,” Olin said. “What Elwood has done is create a character who is not prone to self-examination. It’s kind of in that classic movie (way). He’s not a character who examines himself, and yet he’s clearly a character who cares. He has all these things skills that he tries to put somewhere. He uses these skills to help people, (whereas) his father’s tendency was to just get off the grid (and not trust anyone).

In the season 2 premiere, titled “Out of the Past,” Colter investigates the disappearance of a missing family whose car was found abandoned on the side of the road in the backwoods of Arkansas – and this investigation will take him into the world of organized crime. crime. At the same time, Hartley said, the character will need “a little more time to figure out what his next move is” after feeling betrayed by his own flesh and blood. “It’s a weird game for him to have to play when he has all these jobs,” Hartley said.

“At the beginning of Season 2, we don’t know where Colter is, and he does some things that are a little strange,” added Hartley, who also serves as executive producer. ‘Does he have a job, or does he do relaxing activities? And even if you figure out what he’s doing, it begs the question: Why the hell is he doing this?’

The second episode sees the return of Colter’s brother Russell (Jensen Ackles), who is recruited by Reenie (Fiona Rene) after Colter goes missing on a case. (Reid confirmed the Supernatural star will continue to return to the series as long as he is available.)

Hartley noted that Colter’s discovery of new information will change the tense dynamic in the Shaw family going forward. “The interesting thing about that is that Colter had a certain opinion about his mother and his father, and he really didn’t have anyone to talk to about it. Now he has someone he can maybe bounce things off of. , right?” ” Hartley said, referring to Russell. “Admittedly, Russell isn’t exactly close to their mother, although we did reveal that he occasionally talks to their sister — perhaps more than Colter. You’ll realize, ‘Well, maybe Colter is the most alienated of the bunch, constantly on the move, constantly running from his past, chasing other things.'”

Reid also confirmed that there won’t be many flashbacks (if any) this season unless he can find a way to integrate Hartley into those types of scenes. Instead of relying on flashbacks to tell different versions of the Shaw siblings’ childhoods, audiences will be able to recognize the contrast between the way Russell and Dory reminisce about their childhood and the way Colter remembers it.

“Their mother is a big thing that we’re going to pick up on this season, and (we’ll ask): What does it mean? Was she lying to (Colter)? Was she protecting him? Was she doing a little bit of both, or was she using him for something? I think Colter is a guy who thinks about those things but doesn’t talk about them with people,” Reid said.

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“You saw him with Jensen’s character, Russell, who deals with it in a very different way. He said, ‘Ah, fuck it. Move on.’ And I don’t think Colter can do that,” the showrunner continued. “I think what makes him accessible and human and interesting is watching him struggle with, should I deal with this, or should I do what my sister and brother do. tell me and just move on with my life? I think the answer to that is: Ultimately he will pick it up, but in a way that is very distinctive.”

Where does Hartley think the unwavering desire to search for the truth comes from? “I think it drives a guy like Colter crazy when he’s being lied to or manipulated, or when people think they’re manipulating him, because that’s his game,” the actor responded. “He’s not really being manipulated, but he was a child and he just bought into the belief that this is what happened to his father. This is what he was told, and now he has to find out: What are they covering up? Why does it seem everyone to know all the information except him?

Although he had previously expressed interest in directing an episode of FollowerHartley, who was cutting his teeth behind the camera Smallville And This is ussaid he has decided not to take on that additional role this season.

“I thought about it for about half a second, and then I thought, ‘That would take away from my acting,'” he explained. “It’s too much to do right now. I think if we flesh out these other characters and maybe give them more of a storyline, and I’m not the only one in every frame, then maybe I’ll have a little more time to direct. me to direct an episode of Follower where I am in every frame is like… What is that, ego? What am I doing? How can I view it? I’m in! ”

In the second season, Reid said that he and his writers were keen to gradually flesh out the personal lives of those who work closely with Colter. The showrunner teased that there’s an “interesting” storyline for techie Bobby (Eric Graise) who will “expand his world a bit.” Following the news that Robin Weigert will not return as Teddi Bruin this season, Reid confirmed that Teddi’s on-screen wife, Velma (Abby McEnany), will be on a different kind of trajectory as she continues to treat Colter.

“The Velma character is going through some tough things at home, and she’s going to find some kind of new purpose in life by helping Reenie start her own business,” Reid said. “Reenie takes some risks by opening her own business, and we also get to explore some of Reenie’s romantic past, which is heavily hinted at. It was alluded to in the pilot and other places, and (we’ll see) how Colter responds to that.”

Although he has certainly had fights, Colter’s nomadic life as a ‘lone wolf survivalist’ does not particularly lend itself to long-term relationships. Hartley agreed that his character has more pressing concerns at the moment than a romantic relationship: “I don’t think it’s very practical to travel around the country rescuing people and finding missing people with your girlfriend in an Airstream, So I don’t think where the lone wolf is.” (label) suits him for the time being.”

As the world of Follower continues to expand, there will be opportunities to introduce new characters – and Hartley already has a few in mind.

“I don’t think (the Shaws) had a lot of family friends, but you definitely have neighbors or people who knew family members from the past,” Hartley said. “We haven’t got anything in yet, but I’ve always thought it would be nice to reconnect with someone who knew Colter from his childhood, from his early teens – maybe a friend he hasn’t spoken to in 20 years. 30 years, and then he comes back into the fold and maybe he needs something. And then the friend reminds him of something from his past, and (Colter) says, ‘What do you mean? what I was talking about.” There are so many possibilities to explore during the show.”

Hartley has already enlisted Ackles, one of his oldest friends in the industry, to play his brother. Could he recruit another one of his former costars to play a role like the family friend he just mentioned? Maybe a certain actor who played Superman?

“I love Tom (Welling),” Hartley said of the man who played Clark Kent opposite his Oliver Queen Smallville. “We should find something for Tom, though – something he would be really excited about. If I read something and I think, ‘Oh man, that has Tom Welling written all over it,’ I would love nothing more than that, and That will be the first call I make.”

Follower Season 2 premieres Sunday, October 13 at 8/7c on CBS.