Fire Country Confirms Fan Favorite Return After Season 4 Fall Finale

Well, that did not take long. After the Season 4 fall finale, CBS has already locked in a familiar face: Shawn Hatosy is coming back to Fire Country as Brett Richards. If you were hoping his first run as interim battalion chief was not the last we would see of him, good news — it was not a one-and-done.

Yes, Brett Richards is back

Executive producer Tia Napolitano confirmed Hatosy’s return in an interview with TV Insider and made it pretty clear this is not a quick cameo for nostalgia’s sake — it is a story move.

"We sure are. Are you kidding? Shawn Hatosy? Yeah, get him back here."

"I would say Richards has more than one reason to return to Edgewater."

Quick refresher: where we left him

• Richards swooped into Station 42 in Season 4 as the interim battalion chief after Vince Leone’s death, which obviously put everyone on edge.
• Sharon Leone did not love having him there while the department was still grieving, and his no-nonsense style clashed with Bode Leone fast.
• Once Manny Perez was tapped to lead the department permanently, Richards stepped aside.
• The show also dropped some personal backstory: he trained at the academy with Vince and Sharon, and he has dealt with the loss of his wife.
• Before he left town, he told Sharon something huge: the fire that killed Vince looked like arson.

So what brings him back now?

Napolitano’s tease about 'more than one reason' definitely sounds like the show is circling back to the unresolved stuff: the arson suspicion hanging over Vince’s death, Richards’ old ties to the Leones, and the fallout from a leadership change at 42. The character was introduced right in the middle of chaos, and it sounds like he is returning with purpose, not just to stir the pot and bounce.

When the show returns

Fire Country is back with its midseason return on Friday, February 27, 2026, at 9/8c on CBS. If you have been waiting for the Brett Richards thread to pick up again, mark your calendar.