Actor and musician Jensen Ackles has played several iconic roles on the small screen. Most notably, he played the heroic hunter Dean Winchester in The WB/CW dark fantasy drama series “Supernatural” for 15 years from 2005 until 2020. More recently, he portrayed the arrogant and macho superhero Soldier Boy in the Amazon Prime Video series “The Boys” (and, briefly, in its spin-off show “Gen Z”).
It’s already long been known that Ackles will reprise his role as Soldier Boy in the upcoming “The Boys” prequel series “Vought Rising,” but the star has now revealed he’ll reprise his role another popular character from another show.
Unfortunately for fans of “Supernatural,” there’s no comeback for the Winchester brothers in sight. Instead, Ackles will return as Russell Shaw in season 4 of the CBS action drama series “Tracker.”
Jensen Ackles Shared His ‘Tracker’ Return on Social Media
Jensen Ackles took to his Instagram account to share his return to “Tracker” with his 13.8 million followers on the popular social media platform.
The post includes two photographs and Ackles’ caption on it reads, “After a long, much needed, summer break with the fam…it does feel good to be back on a set.”
In both photographs, Ackles — sporting his trademark floppy hair and trimmed beard — has what appears to be a script with the word “TRACKER” written in capital letters across the top. The piece of paper also has “20th Television” written on it, which is one of the production companies responsible for making the CBS action drama series.
Ackles’ character, Russell Shaw, is the estranged older brother of the show’s main character, Justin Hartley’s Colter Shaw, who’s a lone-wolf survivalist with extensive tracking skills.
The star’s followers and fans of “Tracker” took to the post’s comments section en masse to express their excitement about it.
Ackles’ Followers Are ‘So Excited’ for the Return of ‘Tracker’
GettyJensen Ackles’ fans and followers, and lovers of “Tracker,” flocked to the comments section of the actor’s post to express their excitement at his and the show’s return.
One of Ackles’ followers commented, “So excited for you Jay!!! Break a leg see you in 13 days!!! I’ma go pass out because you just scared me!”
Another follower wrote, “Soooooo ready! 😍 Glad you had a good break with your family!!”
Somebody else said, “AHHH YAY I FIRST SAW YOU ON TRACKER BUT I KNOW YOU WERE IN SUPERNATURAL NOW I LOVE BOTH. But russ on tracker hits different😋😋.”
Meanwhile, one Instagram user, dazzled by Ackles’ charm, humorously wrote, “I was straight before I opened this.”
“Wait till I tell my girls here at the nursing home. They love ya jensen,” proclaimed one individual.
Finally, someone else commented, “Jeez! You should come with a warning or something 😍. Despite that, still appreciate you being the first thing I saw this morning 👌🏼.”
Prior to the summer break with his family that Ackles spoke of, he’d had a very busy 2026. He had appeared in season 3 of “Tracker,” season 5 of “The Boys,” cameoed as himself in an episode of the ABC police procedural series “The Rookie,” and voiced Soldier Boy in “The Boys” video game “The Boys: Trigger Warning.”
We’ll look forward to seeing him return as both Soldier Boy in “Vought Rising” and Russell Shaw in “Tracker.”
Jensen Ackles’ filmography info was courtesy of IMDb.
