Even though This Is Us ended in 2022, the actors who portrayed the Pearson family are always ready to reunite, Milo Ventimiglia exclusively tells Us Weekly.
“There’s so many, too many to name,” Ventimiglia, 46, told Us when asked which former costar he’d most like to work with again. “Everybody from This Is Us is wonderful.”
The actor noted that he’d watched Tracker, which stars Justin Hartley, who played his onscreen son on all six seasons of the NBC tearjerker. Meanwhile, Ken Olin and Roxy Olin, who were on the This Is Us creative team, are executive producers on the new action show. Hartley and the Olins teamed up to adapt Jeffery Deaver‘s novel The Never Game into Tracker while This Is Us was still filming.
“I watched Justin’s show last night too, and [I’m] super proud of him and Ken and Roxy Olin,” Ventimiglia gushed to Us in February. “I saw a lot of familiar This Is Us faces or names on the screen in the production end.”
In Tracker, which debuted after the Super Bowl last month, Hartley plays Colter Shaw, a lone-wolf survivalist who travels the country helping people and law enforcement tackle a variety of mysteries. Ventimiglia added that he “thought the show was great” and Hartley had “a fun role.”
The Gilmore Girls alum continued, “Reuniting with him or anyone else from the cast — or anyone from any number of films I’ve done in the last 28, 29 years — I’m sure that’d be a blast.”
Hartley previously noted that he wanted to bring the This Is Us cast into the mix on Tracker. “I’m always thinking about ways to get back together with those guys,” Hartley told Entertainment Tonight in February. “It’d have to be something really special.”
Pitching potential ways to work with his former costars again, Hartley said maybe a crossover was possible. “Maybe we could find out [my character’s] such a good tracker. Maybe he finds Jack? Like maybe he never died, something like that? A plot twist,” Hartley joked. “Could you imagine? Like, he is good.”
While Tracker (which airs on CBS Sundays at 9 p.m. ET) hasn’t yet figured out a This Is Us reunion, Ventimiglia is finding other ways to work on action-packed projects with old pals. His latest movie, Land of Bad, puts him on screen with Liam Hemsworth, Luke Hemsworth and Ricky Whittle, all of whom he’s known for years.
“The easiest thing is just working with the guys,” Ventimiglia gushed to Us. “You got a good group of gents that are there and we’re laughing a lot. We’re enjoying ourselves. There’s a lot of hard work. There’s zero tension on set other than what’s on the screen that we’re playing. … It’s almost too short for how good of a time it was and how great the group moving forward was. You wish it was a little bit longer.”
Land of Bad follows Ventimiglia as Master Sergeant John “Sugar” Sweet, a member of a military team sent to retrieve a missing CIA asset. When the mission goes south, a drone operator (Russell Crowe) becomes their only chance at survival.
“I think there was a good connection between Sugar and Jack Pearson — a family,” Ventimiglia said. “[In] the opening of Land of Bad, Sugar’s already talking about his daughter loving Fruit Loops, so he’s a father. … You want to see him get home safe, you want to see him get through the mission. I think there’s a lot of inspiring moments for a lot of these men that I play in the action space, but it’s fun to be in. It’s fun to play in that world, especially when you’re with two Hemsworths and a Ricky Whittle. It’s a lot of fun.”
Land of Bad is in theaters now and will be available on digital March 19.
