‘Walker’ Canceled at The CW After Four Seasons

Jared Padalecki in ‘Walker’

The CW

Walker will turn in his badge at The CW.

The network has canceled the Jared Padalecki-led Walker after four seasons. The show will finish out its run on The CW, ending with what will now be a series finale on June 26.

“We want to thank the entire cast, crew, writers, directors and producers of Walker for their hard work and dedication over four incredible seasons,” the network said in a statement. “We also want to give a special thanks to star and executive producer Jared Padalecki, who has been a member of The CW family for over 20 years and was integral to some of the biggest hits on the network.”

Walker is one of just a few scripted series from The CW’s pre-Nexstar days that had a place on the schedule in the network’s current incarnation. The cancellation leaves All American and its spinoff, All American: Homecoming, whose futures remain undecided, and Superman & Lois — whose final season will air in the fall — as the last holdovers from when WarnerMedia (now Warner Bros. Discovery) and CBS (now part of Paramount) jointly owned the network. The CW also has yet to make a decision on first-year drama Sight Unseen, which it co-produces with Canada’s CTV.

In his own statement on Instagram, Padalecki wrote in part, “It has been a unique honor to be a part of the cast and crew (and fandom!) that helped Walker tell the stories that we told. I will forever smile on the years I got to spend with the cast and crew and studio and network and fandom that made this all possible.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter during last week’s upfronts, CW entertainment president Brad Schwartz said the network was still negotiating with Walker’s producers about a potential fifth season, noting that budgets would be a factor: “[T]his past year, we renegotiated on that show and they were able to do it a little more efficiently,” he said. “I think if everybody gets back together, and there are a lot of people that have a lot of decisions to make, and we have budgets that we have to hold to. We’ll see if that show makes it, but it’s certainly an active conversation.” 

Walker is a reworking of the 1990s series Walker, Texas Ranger, which starred Chuck Norris as the title character. Padalecki plays Cordell Walker, who at the series’ outset has to readjust to life at home after a long stint undercover. Ashley Reyes, Keegan Allen, Mitch Pileggi, Molly Hagan, Violet Brinson, Kale Culley, Coby Bell, Jeff Pierre and Odette Annable also star.

Anna Fricke, Padalecki, Dan Lin, Lindsey Liberatore, Steve Robin, Russel Friend and John Patterson executive produce the series, which comes from CBS Studios in association with Rideback, Pursued By A Bear and Stick To Your Guns. Max has streaming rights to the show.