Lee Majors will voice Jeff Tracy in ‘Thunderbirds Are Go!’.
The 80-year-old actor will play the patriarch of the heroic Tracy family in the ITV animated revamp of the iconic action puppet show – and the character will return after he was presumed dead in the original series after going missing during a mission.
Confirming the news in a video on the official ‘Thunderbirds Are Go!’ YouTube page, he said: "I’m playin Captain Jeff Tracy … he may be back."
The show focuses on adventures of the fictional International Rescue organisation, which was founded by Jeff and continues to save lives on land, sea, air and space with the help of a fleet of five vehicles named the Thunderbirds that are launched from IR’s secret island base in the Pacific Ocean.
The character will make his first appearance in the upcoming episodes – which will follow the team as they investigate a mysterious distress signal – that will launch on ITV and CITV every Saturday from May 18.
‘Thunderbirds Are Go!’ writer Rob Hoegee revealed in 2015 that Jeff would be absent from the revamp as he wanted to help the rest of the Rescue organisation "step forward and shine" in the show.
He said: "Jeff Tracy is not a character that can be sidelined or minimised in any way shape or form
"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?
"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."
Lee Majors to voice Jeff Tracy in Thunderbirds Are Go
