‘Fire Country’ Boss Teases Shawn Hatosy’s Return as Richards — What Brings Him Back?

Meredith Jacobs December 22, 2025, 11:00 am

Kevin Alejandro as Manny Perez, Shawn Hatosy as Brett Richards, and Jordan Calloway as Jake Crawford — 'Fire Country' Season 4 Episode 3 'The Tiny Ways We Start to Heal' — Eike Schroter/CBS

What To Know

Executive producer Tia Napolitano confirmed to TV Insider that Shawn Hatosy will return as Brett Richards on Fire Country.
Napolitano also teased what will bring Richards, who clashed with 42 as its interim battalion chief, back.

Brett Richards (Shawn Hatosy) certainly shook things up at Station 42 on Fire Country when he came in as the new battalion chief following Vince’s (Billy Burke) death at the beginning of Season 4; Sharon (Diane Farr) didn’t even like him being at the memorial for her husband. He then left when 42 was ready for a permanent battalion chief in Manny (Kevin Alejandro). So, when TV Insider spoke with executive producer Tia Napolitano about the fall finale, we, of course, had to ask if we’d see Richards again.

“We sure are,” she confirmed. “Are you kidding? Shawn Hatosy? Yeah, get him back here.”

As for what we’ll see, “I would say Richards has more than one reason to return to Edgewater,” Napolitano teased.

It was at the end of the Fire Country Season 4 premiere that Richards revealed he was 42’s new battalion chief, whose goal was, like with other fire houses, to leave it better than he found it and to keep them from suffering any more losses like they did with Vince. He immediately began clashing with Bode (Max Thieriot) — “I’m here to keep you alive because I don’t trust you to do it,” he said — to the point that he told Jake (Jordan Calloway), then captain and then battalion chief hopeful, that whoever took over after him might very well have to cut him. Richards ended up naming Manny battalion chief before he left in Episode 4.

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Before he left, we did hear bits about Richards’ own past, including that he was in the academy with Sharon and Vince (and was one of the first to figure out they were dating) and that he lost his wife, who had been his mentor, seven years earlier during what was supposed to be a simple structure fire. He assured Sharon that it does get it easier but it takes time. He was also the one to clue Sharon in on the fact that the fire that killed her husband was arson, which remains an ongoing mystery.

What are you hoping to see when Shawn Hatosy returns as Brett Richards? Let us know in the comments section below.

Fire Country, Midseason Return, Friday, February 27, 2026, 9/8c, CBS