Shawn Hatosy is just the man Fire Country needs after two surprise exits — including a major death — but what is there to know about his character ahead of his season 4 debut?
In Us Weekly‘s exclusive first look at the upcoming season, Hatosy, 49, is all smiles in the role of Battalion Chief Brett Richards. According to the official character synopsis, Brett is “a roving Cal Fire station fixer, who prides himself on his contradictions, especially because they keep others guessing and on their toes.”
The newcomer is “a no-BS, blunt talking, ATV riding cowboy type with a renegade streak” who is “a hard stickler for the rules.” Brett will come in with a “polarizing leadership style that gets under everyone’s skin” as he hammers “a grieving Bode and the 42 crew with a battle cry of ‘No more dead firefighters!’”
“But there’s a method to Richard’s madness. Holding two masters degrees, Richards isn’t just an expert in fire behavior. Human behavior is his true expertise,” the description continued. “As Bode, Sharon and the rest of 42 still reel from Vince’s death, Richards, no stranger to loss himself, is determined to break our fragile heroes all the way down in order to put them back together.”
Hatosy’s recurring role comes after he wrapped up his arc as Deputy Chief Charlie Reid in Chicago P.D. and before he returned for season 2 of The Pitt.
“We were so lucky to get him. We’ve created this role of somebody who comes in after this huge fire and Station 42 got burned down [metaphorically] with the death of Vince. How do we move forward? Is this the house of Leone? Who takes over? Who is in charge? Did we make mistakes? All of these questions,” Fire Country creator Joan Rater teased to Us last month. “We created this character who — literally his job is to come into stations that are struggling and to diagnose what the problem is and to figure out how they can move forward.”
Shawn Hatosy as Brett Richards. Sergei Bachlakov/CBS
She continued: “He’s our guy and he has a real formidable presence. He doesn’t back down from conflict with Bode or Sharon. We needed a formidable presence because our characters are strong, and Vince was a strong guy. We wanted to create somebody to come in and sort of read the room.”
Fire Country premiered in 2022 and introduced Us to inmate Bode (Max Thieriot) as he returned home and volunteered for the California Conservation Camp Program. The show has since expanded with Sheriff Country, which received a straight-to-series order with Morena Baccarin at the helm.
Ahead of season 4, Fire Country has gone through several casting shakeups after the season 3 finale ended on a cliffhanger with Vince (Billy Burke), Sharon (Diane Farr) and Walter’s (Jeff Fahey) lives left in the balance. News broke hours after the April episode aired that budget cuts led to Burke, 58, and Stephanie Arcila‘s exits. (Burke has yet to address his departure.)
“The minute that they told me [Gabriela wouldn’t return as a main character], I accepted it. I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to put Gabriela in this beautiful little drawer of fulfilled dreams and let the universe take over,’” Arcila, 35, exclusively told Us in April. “I respect every department in our industry, and I know that we all know what we’re doing and have a way with storytelling. It’s a collaborative process. I have no idea [where Gabriela’s story] would go from here, but you never know [about coming back].”
Arcila said she was in “complete shock” about her departure. “I had no idea ever. But at the same time, I know that this is the nature of the industry that I’m in, and I have accepted the flow of release and acceptance throughout my journey and knowing that when one door closes, another one always opens,” she added. “We have this beautiful eternal door of revolving desires in what we love in life. I believe that if we put resistance towards that, sometimes it stops us from fulfilling other things that we love.”
Arcila, who played Gabriela since Fire Country premiered, went on to address the overwhelming response to her and Burke’s futures.
“We watch these shows and we grow with them. We grow these attachments as well and we look forward to watching them. So it’s shocking,” she continued. “I have received all those messages. People have so much love for Gabriela — and I didn’t realize it. We’re in such a bubble sometimes when we’re working nine months out of the year. So you don’t realize that.”
She concluded: “Then when we get back, we try to pour into ourselves because we pour so much into these characters. So to have this big reaction and this amount of mourning that the fans are having — it’s like a big hug. It warms my heart so much.”
Fire Country returns to CBS on Friday, October 17, at 8 p.m. ET before taking its regular time slot on Friday, October 24, at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes will be streaming the next day on Paramount+.
