Animal Kingdom Star Makes His Fire Country Debut as Roving Cal Fire Station Fixer
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Fire Country teases what fans can expect from Shawn Hatosy’s role in the series. The actor joins the cast in Season 4, following a main character’s shocking exit.
It’s yet to be confirmed if Hatosy’s character is Vince Leone’s (played by Billy Burke) permanent replacement. Richards will be introduced as “a roving Cal Fire station fixer,” which tracks with how the Season 3 finale ended. Hatosy was first rumored to join Fire Country on Sept. 2, following reports he was seen filming on set. Social media posts confirmed this on Sept. 24. The first trailer for Season 4 dropped on Sept. 26, shocking fans by confirming Vince’s death.
Brett Richards Is Cal Fire Station 42’s New Battalion Chief
Fire Country assures fans that Richards is the kind of leader Cal Fire needs, one who’s “determined to break our fragile heroes all the way down in order to put them back together.” Hatosy is perfectly cast in the role, having played single-minded characters in Reckless, Chicago P.D. and The Pitt. Animal Kingdom‘s Andrew “Pope” Cody is Hatosy’s most definitive role to date, unhinged, unpredictable and violent.
Hatosy’s casting in Fire Country comes in the wake of Burke and co-star Stephanie Arcilla’s departures. The latter was announced shortly after the Season 3 finale aired. It’s now likely that Arcilla’s character, Cal Fire firefighter and paramedic Gabriela Perez, will not have her happy ending with Bode (Max Thieriot), her long-time love interest, but Season 4 will at least wrap up her story arc. Burke has yet to address his exit.
Fire Country creator Joan Rater confirmed that Hatosy’s debut is a pivot point for the series. “We were so lucky to get him,” she said in a separate interview with the outlet. “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. 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.”