After a tense season premiere, Jared Padalecki teases more trouble ahead for Cordell in Walker season 3. The crime drama is a reboot of Chuck Norris’ popular 1990s series, Walker, Texas Ranger, and follows Cordell Walker as the legendary Texas Ranger returns home to Austin after a lengthy undercover assignment. Walker premiered on The CW in 2021 to impressive debut ratings, and this positive reception led to Walker being renewed for two more seasons, as well as the spinoff prequel show Walker: Independence.
Walker season 3 premiered this week with a tense opening fraught with danger. The season 3 premiere, “World on a String,” picked up after Walker season 2’s finale cliffhanger, which saw Cordell kidnapped by a mysterious group of assailants before his daughter Stella’s (Violet Brinson) graduation. Padalecki’s Texas Ranger spends the season 3 premiere in a cell being tortured by a Black Ops-type group, who appear to want to radicalize him for their own ends. Of course, Walker’s previous experiences as a Marine allow him to endure these attempts. When the group’s methods don’t work on Cordell, they bring in his brother Liam (Keegan Allen) at the end of the episode in an apparent effort to break him down.
Now, the series’ star is sharing how this twist will affect his character. Padalecki says Liam’s kidnapping sets up the rest of Walker season 3. In an interview with TV Insider after the season premiere, he teases that Cordell and his brother face even more danger in the upcoming season 3 episodes, saying “it gets real bad.” Check out Padalecki’s full comments below:
Oh, it gets, it gets real bad. It gets to the point where Walker knows he has to do something and obviously he doesn’t have a lot at his disposal. He’s caged up and unable to really move around. He doesn’t have any weapons. And they always bring in multiple guys to make sure that they’re compliant, right? It gets so bad that Walker knows he’s got to do something.
Cordell Walker’s Season 3 Future Explained
So far, Walker seems to be setting Cordell up for a critical moral crisis. Walker season 2 relieved the Texas Ranger of a huge burden of guilt when it revealed the truth behind the Davidson’s barn fire, but the new season’s conflict seems intent on undoing that development. Padalecki’s words imply that seeing Liam in danger, and potentially in pain, will force Cordell to cross lines that shouldn’t be crossed, making him reckon with how his work threatens the people he loves. This tease, considered together with the season 3 marketing featuring Walker’s white hat, may mean viewers will see the Texas Ranger breaking laws to protect his family.
It’s hard to predict how Liam and Cordell’s kidnapping will be resolved, but it’s certain that Cordell will always put his family first. His past in the Marines definitely gives him the experience to handle his current situation, but it may spark more conflict with Liam in the rest of season 3, especially if Cordell plays along with the kidnappers to keep him safe. The brothers had small moments of conflict in Walker season 2, and a shared experience like this could push their relationship in either direction. However it is resolved, the fallout will definitely shape the rest Walker season 3.
