‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Getting Television Reboot Starring Jared Padalecki
Walker, Texas Ranger is returning to television with a new ranger in town, Deadline reports. Supernatural star Jared Padalecki is set to play the iconic role that Chuck Norris originally created.
Padalecki is a Texas native, himself.
Anna Fricke — whose credits include Valor and Being Human — is set to write and executive produce the new series, titled Walker, alongside executive producers Dan Lin (Lethal Weapon, The Lego Movie) and Dan Spilo (Sunnyside). CBS TV Studios is shopping the reboot, and the CW, Padalecki's Supernatural network home, "has emerged as a leading contender for the new show, with CBS... also as a possibility."
CBS aired the original Walker, Texas Ranger series, created by Albert S. Ruddy and Leslie Greif. The show ran for eight seasons in the 1990s and spawned a television movie in 2005, Walker, Texas Ranger: Trial by Fire.
The reboot centers around Walker and his female partner, focusing on the same subject matter as the original, with family, action, crime and morality. The show centers on the character of Cordell Walker (Padalecki), who is a widower and crime investigator in Texas' most elite unit. The character is known for listening to his moral compass no matter the consequences or laws. After being undercover for two years on a case, Walker returns home to Austin only to discover that his two children have lost their connection and closeness to him.
Deadline's source reports that the new series will be a "straight reboot, in the vein of CBS’ Magnum P.I. and MacGyver, with a new incarnation of the beloved title character, vs. a sequel where the new lead is a descendant of the protagonist in the original series."
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