Yahoo News Exclusive: Thunderbirds Are Go! will finally bring back Jeff Tracy
Jeff Tracy will finally make an appearance in ITV series Thunderbirds Are Go! – and he'll be voiced by Six Million Dollar Man actor Lee Majors, Digital Spy can exclusively reveal.
A prominent figure in the original Thunderbirds, Jeff – patriarch of the heroic Tracy family and founder of International Rescue – has remained an unseen character on TAG, having gone missing on a mission.
Presumed dead since the series began, Jeff will make his first appearance in the upcoming episodes that will launch on ITV and CITV every Saturday from May 18.
You can watch a new video with Majors speaking about taking on the iconic role below:
Back in 2015, Thunderbirds Are Go! head writer Rob Hoegee gave an explanation as to why Jeff would be absent from the revamp. "Jeff Tracy is not a character that can be sidelined or minimised in any way shape or form," he explained.
"Our feeling was… what would be a way to make Jeff Tracy mean something to the show and be just as important, but still be in a place where the rest of the boys can take a step forward and shine?
[Jeff Tracy in the original Thunderbirds]
"So our decision to take him out of the picture was really motivated by that, and it became a situation story-wise where [the show] became less about 'what dad tells us to do' and more about 'what would dad do?'
"The currency we get from the absence of their father is hugely important as we move forward with the series."
Digital Spy also has a first-look image of Jeff on TAG – he's masked, but trust us... it's him!
In these new episodes, a mysterious distress signal reaches International Rescue and the whole team must pull together to discover who is behind it. With The Hood and his Chaos Crew continuing to leave destruction in their wake, even managing to commandeer a Thunderbird, the Tracy brothers really have their hands full.
Unwavering in their belief that everyone is worth saving, International Rescue’s missions take them around the world and beyond, from the depths of the Supreme Barrier Reef to the far reaches of space via the streets of London, the caverns of a futuristic holo-game, a snow-covered mountain range and a haunted nuclear facility.
Thunderbirds Are Go season 3B will air from May 18, weekly on Saturdays 8am on ITV and CITV.
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