The Big Picture

Season 2 of Reacher focuses on family, responsibility, and tension, adding a sense of life and death for the protagonist. Season 3 will continue to honor the books and maintain its status as an anthology, with a deep desire to resurrect characters from previous seasons, if it doesn’t take away from the true nature of the material. The action sequences in Season 2, particularly a warehouse fight toward the end of the season, were challenging to film but show the true capabilities of the show.

If you enjoyed the first season of the Prime Video original series Reacher, then you’ll definitely be into the bigger, higher stakes, and more epic Season 2. Based on the eleventh novel in the series from author Lee Child, “Bad Luck and Trouble,” the new season meets back up with 6’5” ex-military, reluctant action hero Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson), who’s taken out of his nomad lifestyle as he reunites with three of his former U.S. Army Unit, the 110th MP Special Investigations, to figure out who’s hunting them. Joined by Frances Neagley (Maria Sten), Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan), and David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos), Reacher has a lot on his plate with trying to uncover the truth of who has betrayed them, figure out who is murdering the unit one by one, and also keeping them alive. And if you learned nothing else from Season 1 of the hit series, you know that when things get personal, you don’t want to be anywhere in the path of a lethal Reacher who has his sights set on you.

Collider recently got the opportunity to chat with series lead Ritchson, who clearly puts his heart and soul into the role. During the interview, he talked about this season’s theme of family, the bigger life and death stakes, wanting to continue the show’s anthology nature with each season, what he insisted on changing about the character for Season 2, how he wanted to improve the action and fight scenes, the challenge of shooting a fight scene in one shot, and his goal of wanting to honor and be true to the books.

And when we tried to get out of Ritchson which book they were adapting for the already-in-production Season 3, he was tight-lipped, but did say that they wouldn’t be combining books and that they were adapting one of the favorites, ensuring what he feels will be their best season yet.

Reacher When retired Military Police Officer Jack Reacher is arrested for a murder he did not commit, he finds himself in the middle of a deadly conspiracy full of dirty cops, shady businessmen and scheming politicians. With nothing but his wits, he must figure out what is happening in Margrave, Georgia. The first season of Reacher is based on the international bestseller The Killing Floor by Lee Child. Streaming Service(s) Prime Video

Collider: I loved the first season. I don’t know how you topped it with the second season, but you did. As good as Season 1 is, Season 2 feels bigger and more epic, all around. It’s like the graduated version of the show.

ALAN RITCHSON: That is so good to hear.

Christmas is clearly the season of Reacher, with Season 2 debuting and with the announcement of Season 3. Without any spoilers, what would you say about what fans can expect from Season 2?

RITCHSON: Thematically, I think I’d sum it up with family. With family comes stakes, with those stakes comes responsibility, and with that responsibility comes tension. There’s a lot, thematically, driving this to new heights for Reacher. The affection and loyalty that he has towards former members of his 110th, which is who he unites with on this adventure, really creates a sense of life and death in a meaningful way for him. We didn’t really have that with Season 1. Season 1 was a great story, but it was just a different construct.

Because Season 1 and Season 2 are so different from each other, and I feel like it doesn’t really spoil anything to say that the end of Season 2 feels wide open to where Season 3 would go, with the third season feel closer to the second season, or will it feel very different again and very much its own thing?

RITCHSON: I think we are going to continue to honor the books, in really keeping this an anthology. The adventures that Reacher goes on in the books are generally quite independent from one another. There’s a deep desire to resurrect characters from other seasons because some of the actors and actresses are so good that it feels impossible to leave them behind. But generally, there’s a great respect for what (author) Lee [Child] built, which is an anthology.

Alan Ritchson Says Season 3 of ‘Reacher’ Will Be the Best Yet
Image via Prime Video

Which book is being adapted for Season 3?

RITCHSON: As you said that, about 45 heads popped up nervously like little hedgehogs in a prairie, looking for danger.

If you can’t specifically say which book it is, can you say whether it’s one book or are you combining books?

RITCHSON: There’s no combining books, that I can tell you. There’s enough meat on the bone in a book for a season of TV without needing to do that, generally speaking. But it’s one of the favorites. I’ll just say that. People are gonna like this book and it’s gonna be one of the best seasons yet.

What did you learn from the first season to the second season, that you feel made the second season better? And what did you learn from doing two seasons that you think will make the third even better? Are there things that you’ve realized are the sweet spot of Reacher now?

RITCHSON: Yeah. The thing I learned from Season 1 was never to clean-shave my ugly face. I do not like looking at photos of Reacher Season 1 and feeling like, “Who’s the 11-year-old playing this dude? There’s nothing scary about that guy.” There was a hard request not to clean shave anymore. I would say that I noticed we needed a lot of work in the fight department, which is funny because the fights in Season 1 get a lot of praise. I hear from people that they’re passed around as something to be enjoyed in excellence, but I see a lot of mistakes and things that need refinement. So, in my endless pursuit of perfection, I have a new stunt double, Ryan Tarran, who I stole from a super good actor, and he’s helped really elevate my movements in Season 2. I’m continuing that into Season 3 with extra effort on the side. That’s, for sure, the biggest thing.

Alan Ritchson’s Proudest Moment of Season 2 Was a One-Take Fight Scene

You have done some very cool action in the show, and this season as well. Was there a sequence this season that was really the absolute backbreaker?

RITCHSON: It won’t look like it to the viewers. We haven’t really had a prison fight, like from Season 1, where it’s just this all-out brawl with one-on-10 in a concrete cinderblock room. That was a really cool opportunity and a great way to kick things off and show just how capable Reacher is and what we’re capable of doing on the show. There’s something about watching that where you get tired. That was exhausting for me, as a viewer.

In Season 2, there was a sequence that was similar because we actually shot it as a oner, which is so intense when you’re getting shot at and doing hand-to-hand combat and stealing guns and shooting people with that gun. There was a lot of movement, there was glass breaking, there was all kinds of stuff, and we got it in a oner, on the first take. I’m super proud of that. Somebody got b-roll, somewhere along the way, and it’s no longer a oner. I can see cuts in the thing now. But on the day we got it and watched it back, that was my proudest moment of Season 2. That was a really tough thing to pull off. But I don’t think it’s gonna resonate because, of what it took to make it, that probably won’t translate to people watching. I don’t know. Maybe it will. I hope so.

What episode is that in, so that people can keep an eye out for it?

RITCHSON: It’s in Episode 7 or 8. Real close to the finale, there’s a big warehouse fight.

Season 2 feels different from Season 1, but I love that we still get callbacks to the first season. It’s not just forgotten and moved on from. Is that something that you guys talked about working in? Is that something you always want to be sure to weave in, in some way, as a payoff for people who keep watching the series?

RITCHSON: Honestly, that’s above my pay grade. I think what I say is taken with a grain of salt. There were a lot of conversations about, “Is there a way to bring these characters back in somehow? Roscoe and Finley were just too good to pass up seeing them again.” Of course, there are a lot of conversations about, “Is there an organic way to do this or is that betraying what’s so good about the books?” They really are an anthology, except for two books that continue on. So, I don’t know. My goal is to help find ways to honor the books. When I read a script, I’m reading it through the lens of everything that I know about the Reacher world and trying to keep the writers honest, if I can. I would err on the side of being true to the books, if possible.

Reacher is available to stream on Prime Video. Check out the Season 2 trailer:

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