''Walker'' is an American

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

television series developed by

Anna Fricke Anna Fricke is an American television writer and producer best known for her work on shows like ''Dawson's Creek'', ''Everwood'', ''Men in Trees'' and '' Privileged'' and as the co-creator of the North American version of '' Being Human.'' Ca ...

for

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. It is a

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

of the 1990s western drama television series ''

Walker, Texas Ranger ''Walker, Texas Ranger'' is an American action crime television series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis. It was inspired by the film ''Lone Wolf McQuade'', with both this series and that film starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texa ...

''. The series was ordered straight to series in 2020, with

Jared Padalecki Jared Tristan Padalecki (born July 19, 1982) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the role of Sam Winchester in the TV series '' Supernatural''. He grew up in Texas and rose to fame in the early 2000s after appearing on the televi ...

playing the titular role. It premiered on January 21, 2021. In February 2021, the series was renewed for a second season which premiered on October 28, 2021. In March 2022, the series was renewed for a third season which premiered on October 6, 2022.

Cast and characters

Main

as Cordell Walker, a legendary Texas Ranger who just returned home after a lengthy undercover assignment ** Mason Thames as Young Walker (season 2) **

Colin Ford Colin Ford (born September 12, 1996) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Josh Wheeler in '' Daybreak'', Joe McAlister in '' Under the Dome'', the voice of Jake on ''Jake and the Never Land Pirates'', Mikey on '' Can You Teach My A ...

as Corporal Cordell Walker (season 3) *

Lindsey Morgan Lindsey Marie Morgan (born February 27, 1990) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as mechanic Raven Reyes on The CW science fiction drama series ''The 100'' (2014–2020), as well as her role as Ranger Michelle "Micki" Ramire ...

as Micki Ramirez (seasons 1–2), Cordell's new partner in the Texas Rangers *

Molly Hagan Molly Joan Hagan is an American actress. She co-starred in films ''Code of Silence'' (1985), '' Some Kind of Wonderful'' (1987), ''The Dentist'' (1996), ''Election'' (1999), and '' Sully'' (2016), and is also known for her roles in television on ...

as Abeline Walker, Cordell and Liam's mother *

Keegan Allen Keegan Phillip Allen (born July 22, 1989) is an American actor, photographer, author and musician known for his main role as Toby Cavanaugh on the Freeform series ''Pretty Little Liars.'' Early life Allen was born and raised in California, t ...

as Liam Walker, Cordell's brother and an assistant DA for the City of Austin * Violet Brinson as Stella Walker, Cordell's 16-year-old daughter * Kale Culley as August "Auggie" Walker, Cordell's 14-year-old son *

Coby Bell Coby Scott Bell (born May 11, 1975) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Jesse Porter on the USA Network original series '' Burn Notice'' and professional football player Jason Pitts on The CW/BET comedy-drama '' The Game''. ...

as Larry James, Cordell's former partner turned captain * Jeff Pierre as Trey Barnett, Micki's army medic boyfriend *

Mitch Pileggi Mitch Pileggi (born April 5, 1952) is an American actor. He played Horace Pinker in '' Shocker'', Walter Skinner on ''The X-Files'', Colonel Steven Caldwell on ''Stargate Atlantis'', Ernest Darby in ''Sons of Anarchy'', and Harris Ryland in th ...

as Bonham Walker, Cordell and Liam's father *

Odette Annable Odette Juliette Annable (; born May 10, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for various roles in film and television, including as Dr. Jessica Adams in the Fox medical drama series ''House'', Beth McIntyre in the monster film ''Cloverfie ...

as Geraldine "Geri" Broussard (season 2–present; recurring season 1), an old friend of Walker and Emily who runs a bar * Ashley Reyes as Cassie Perez (season 2–present), a Texas Ranger from Dallas who becomes Walker's new partner

Recurring

Genevieve Padalecki Genevieve Nicole Padalecki (née Cortese) (born January 8, 1981) is an American actress. She appeared in the television series ''Wildfire'' as Kris Furillo and had a recurring role in ''Supernatural'' as the demon Ruby. Life and career Corte ...

as Emily Walker (season 1; guest season 2–3), Cordell's late wife and Stella and August's late mother *

Matt Barr Matthew Jerome Barr (born February 14, 1984) is an American actor, best-known as Danny McNamara in the CBS/Paramount+ action–adventure television series ''Blood & Treasure'' and as Johnson "Johnse" Hatfield in '' Hatfields & McCoys''. Barr al ...

as Hoyt Rawlins (season 1), Cordell's best friend and Geri's long time on and off boyfriend *

Alex Landi Alex Landi (born September 28, 1992) is an American actor and model of Korean-Italian descent, best known for his role as Dr. Nico Kim on ABC's ''Grey's Anatomy''. Early life and education Landi was born in New York City. His mother, Nana Landi, ...

as Bret Nam (season 1; guest season 2), Liam's ex-fiancé * Gabriela Flores as Isabel "Bel" Muñoz (season 1), Stella's best friend from a family of undocumented immigrant *

Jeffrey Nordling Jeffrey Richard Nordling (born March 11, 1962) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Jake Manning in ''Once and Again'', Larry Moss in '' 24'', Nick Bolen in ''Desperate Housewives'', and Gordon Klein in '' Big Little Lies'', as wel ...

as Stan Morrison (season 1; guest season 2) the corrupt head of the

Texas DPS The Department of Public Safety of the State of Texas, commonly known as the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), is a department of the state government of Texas. The DPS is responsible for statewide law enforcement and driver license admini ...

who killed Emily * Madelyn Kientz as Ruby (season 1), August's friend * Mandy McMillian as Connie Richards (season 1), receptionist and hacker for

* Gavin Casalegno as Trevor Strand (season 1), Clint's son who befriends Stella *

Austin Nichols Austin Nichols (born April 24, 1980) is an American actor and director, known for his role as Julian Baker in The CW drama series ''One Tree Hill''. He is also known for his roles in the films ''The Day After Tomorrow'' and '' Wimbledon''. He st ...

as Clint West (season 1), The former ring leader of the Rodeo Kings operation and a convicted felon * Joe Perez as Carlos Mendoza (season 1), the falsely convicted murderer of Emily Walker *

Alex Meneses Alexandra Estella Meneses (born February 12, 1965) is an American actress and model. Early life Meneses was born in Chicago, Illinois. She is of Mexican descent on her father's side and Ukrainian descent on her mother's side. Meneses studied act ...

as Dr. Adriana Ramirez (season 1), Micki's aunt who is a psychiatrist * Cameron Vitosh as Todd, Stella and August's friend *

Paula Marshall Paula Marshall (born June 12, 1964) is an American actress. Career In 1990, Marshall had a guest role as Iris West, the love interest of Flash (Barry Allen) in the pilot episode on the short-lived '' Flash''. In 1991, she guest-starred on ''Supe ...

as Gale Davidson (season 2), Denise's mother and rival of Abeline * Amara Zaragoza as Denise Davidson (season 2), the new district attorney and Gale's daughter who has a history with Cordell *

Dave Annable David Rodman Annable (born September 15, 1979) is an American actor. His roles include Justin Walker on the ABC television drama '' Brothers & Sisters'' (2006–11), Henry Martin on the ABC supernatural drama ''666 Park Avenue'' (2012–13), and ...

as Dan Miller (seasons 2–3), Denise's loving husband *

Jalen Thomas Brooks Jalen Thomas Brooks (born October 11, 2001) is an American actor. He is known for playing Bobby in Thanksgiving (2023) and his recurring roles on ''Rebel'' and '' Animal Kingdom''. He currently plays Colton on The CW's ''Walker''. Early life an ...

as Colton Davidson (seasons 2–3), Denise and Dan's son * Bella Samman as Faye (season 2), Stella's friend * Matt Pascua as Ben Perez (seasons 2–3), Cassie's older brother * Anna Enger Ritch as Julia Johnson (season 3), a reporter held in captivity with Cordell * David B. Meadows as Sergeant Clay Cooper (season 3), Cordell's commanding officer in the army *

Jake Abel Jacob Allen Abel (born November 18, 1987) is an American actor. He has appeared in the film adaptations of the young adult novels ''Percy Jackson'' (2010–2013), ''I Am Number Four'' (2011), and '' The Host'' (2013), along with portraying musi ...

as Kevin Golden (season 3), Cassie's love interest

Guest

* Chris Labadie as Jordan (season 1), an ex-con employed by a shady business * Karina Dominguez as Alma Muñoz (season 1), Bel's mother who is an undocumented immigrant * Ricky Catter as Lorenzo Muñoz (season 1), Bel's father who is an undocumented immigrant *

Andre Williams Andre Williams may refer to: * Andre Williams (musician) * Andre Williams (American football) * Andre Williams, British DJ better known as Shy FX {{hndis, Williams, Andre ...

as Ranger Randall (Season 1, Season 2) good friend of Cordell * Andre Martin as Coach Bobby (season 1), Stella and Isabel's soccer coach *

Rebekah Graf Rebekah Graf is an American film and television actress. She is best known for playing Heather Locklear in the 2018 biographical film, biopic The Dirt (film), ''The Dirt''. Family and early life Graf was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Te ...

as Crystal (season 1), Clint's wife * Karissa Lee Staples as Twyla Jean, a member of the Rodeo Kings and Cordell's girlfriend when he was undercover * Matthew Barnes as Garrison (season 2), Micki's childhood ex-fiancé and Serano's right-hand * Henderson Wade as Serano (season 2), a powerful drug lord * Felix Alonzo as Marv Davidson (season 2), Gale's deceased husband and Denise and Geri's father * Mustafa Elzein as Miles Vyas (season 2), Cassie's presumed deceased former partner *

Jensen Ackles Jensen Ross Ackles (born March 1, 1978) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Dean Winchester in The WB/The CW, CW dark fantasy drama series ''Supernatural (American TV series), Supernatural'' (2005–2020) and appearing in ...

as Miles Vyas (cameo season 2 episode 14)

Episodes

Season 1 (2021)

Season 2 (2021–22)

Season 3 (2022–23)

Production

Development

In September 2019, it was announced that a reboot of ''

'' starring

was in development.

picked up the project for its 2020–2021 development slate in October 2019. In January 2020, it was announced that The CW had ordered the project directly to series, bypassing a

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

, and would be titled ''Walker''. The series is written by

who is also expected to executive produce alongside

Dan Lin Dan Lin (; born April 8, 1973) is a Taiwanese-American film producer. He is the founder and CEO of Rideback (formerly Lin Pictures until 2018), a film and television production company that he formed in 2008 that has a first-look deal at Uni ...

, Lindsey Liberatore and Padalecki. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of

CBS Television Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount Television, as a renaming of the o ...

and Rideback. On February 3, 2021, The CW gave the series an additional five episodes bringing the total episodes for the first season to 18 episodes and renewed the series for a second season. The second season premiered on October 28, 2021. On March 22, 2022, The CW renewed the series for a third season.

Casting

On February 5, 2020, it was announced that

had joined ''Walker'' in the role of Micki, Walker's new partner in the Texas Rangers. The same month,

was cast in the role of Walker's brother, Liam, while

and

were cast as Walker's father and mother, Bonham and Abeline, respectively. On February 28, 2020, it was announced that

had joined the series, playing the role of Texas Ranger Captain Larry James. On March 4, 2020, Jeff Pierre was cast as a series regular. On March 12, 2020, Violet Brinson and Kale Culley joined the cast as series regulars. On September 14, 2020,

, Jared Padalecki's wife, was cast in a recurring role. On October 30, 2020,

was cast in a recurring role. In November 2020, Chris Labadie and

joined the cast in recurring roles. On December 4, 2020, Gabriela Flores was cast in a recurring role. On January 7, 2021,

joined the cast in a recurring capacity. On February 19, 2021,

was cast in a recurring role. On April 29, 2021, it was reported that

was promoted as a series regular for the second season. On August 31, 2021, it was announced that

joined the cast in a recurring role for the second season. On October 22, 2021, it was announced that Mason Thames will have a recurring role as Young Walker. Jalen Thomas Brooks was also cast as Colton Davidson.

Filming

During a meeting on October 15, 2020, the Austin City Council approved an agreement for $141,326 in incentives that would allow the reboot, ''Walker'', to start filming in Austin. The Texas Film Commission is planning to offer an incentive of $9.3 million.

Release

Marketing

On December 14, 2020, The CW released the first official trailer for the series.

Broadcast

''Walker'' premiered on January 21, 2021, as part of

's 2020–21 television season. In Canada, the series airs on the

CTV Drama Channel CTV Drama Channel (formerly known as Bravo) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Bell Media. The channel was founded as the Canadian version of the U.S. channel Bravo (which is now owned by NBCUniversal) on January 1, 1995 ...

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

with The CW in the United States. The second season premiered on October 6, 2022.

Home media

Prequel series

In December 2021, it was reported that a prequel series titled, ''Walker: Independence'', was in development at The CW with Padalecki as executive producer and Fricke as showrunner. A pilot order was confirmed in February 2022.

Larry Teng Larry Teng (born June 12, 1977) is an American television director and producer. Education In 1999, Teng graduated with a degree in film from Ithaca College. Career Teng has directed and produced for the television series ''Medium'' from 20 ...

would direct the pilot, Justin Johnson Cortez was cast as a series regular, and Barr was also cast as Hoyt Rawlins. In March 2022, it was announced that

Katherine McNamara Katherine Grace McNamara (born November 22, 1995) is an American actress, known for playing Clary Fray on the 2016–2019 supernatural drama television series '' Shadowhunters'', and Mia Smoak in the superhero series ''Arrow''. She has also s ...

had been cast in the lead role. She will be portraying Abby Walker, the ancestor of Padalecki's Cordell Walker. Also that month,

Lawrence Kao Lawrence Kao is an American actor, best known for his roles as Tommy Wah in the Netflix series ''Wu Assassins'', Donnie Lu in the Fox series '' Sleepy Hollow'', Van in the CW series '' The Originals'' and Tim in the AMC series, '' The Walking D ...

, Greg Hovanessian, Philemon Chambers and

Katie Findlay Katie Findlay is a Canadian actress known for portraying Rosie Larsen in the American crime drama television series '' The Killing''. From 2013 to 2014, Findlay portrayed Maggie Landers in The CW's teen drama ''The Carrie Diaries''. From 2014 to ...

joined the cast as series regulars. In May 2022, The CW picked up the series for a fall premiere and paired it with its parent series in a Thursday time slot. In June 2022, Gabriela Quezada was cast as a series regular. The series premiered on October 6, 2022.

Reception

Critical response

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the first season has an approval rating of 33% based on 18 critic reviews, with an average rating of 4.93/10. The website's critic consensus states, "Despite decent performances, ''Walker'' bland storytelling and limited action fails to fill its namesake's butt-kicking boots." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, it has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100 based on 8 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Ratings

The ''Walker'' pilot marked The CW's most-watched telecast since January 30, 2018, and its most-watched season premiere since ''The Flash'' (season 4) in October 2017. The premiere also garnered the highest viewership for any episode in its time slot in four years, since the airing of the "Invasion!" episode of the show ''

Legends of Tomorrow ''DC's Legends of Tomorrow'', or simply ''Legends of Tomorrow'', is an American Time travel in fiction, time travel superhero fiction, superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg, and Phil Klem ...

''. It also attracted the largest Live+7-day viewership for a new series since 2016's ''Legends of Tomorrow''.

Overall

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

References

External links

* {{The CW programming 2020s American crime drama television series 2020s American LGBT-related drama television series 2021 American television series debuts American action television series The CW original programming Gay-related television shows Television productions postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Television series about the Texas Ranger Division Television series about families Television series by CBS Studios Television series reboots Television shows set in Austin, Texas Television shows filmed in Texas Neo-Western television series 2020s Western (genre) television series