Alan Ritchson returns Thursday for Prime Video’s third season of “Reacher” and the ex-military big guy – 6 feet 5 and 250 pounds – is ready to rock again.
For creator and author Lee Child, 2025 marks a couple of milestones: The 30th Reacher novel and at 70 his retirement, as his brother Andrew, his co-writer on the last six books, takes over.
Does Child see this career-defining character like a Sherlock Holmes or Sam Spade, destined to go on and on?
“Well, there’s a lot of milestones along that way. The first time you see somebody who is reading the book is milestone Number 1,” Child said in a Zoom interview.
“Then many years later, the name Jack Reacher started to pop up in contexts outside of the literary world. It’s in the official parliamentary record of New Zealand. And I read a reveal of a new SUV that said, ‘This is the Jack Reacher of SUVs!’
“When it migrates outward into the general culture, that is when you know you’ve made it, this character is living on.”
Reacher famously roams America, a solitary, avenging figure with only a toothbrush, t-shirt and jeans. He has no home, no family. What exactly does Child want this hulking avenger to represent?
“I wanted to answer what, apparently, is a long-standing human desire to have such a character. Basically, the Robin Hood figure, the noble loner, the mysterious stranger that shows up in the nick of time, solves the problem and then rides off into the sunset.
“That character has existed for thousands of years in every culture. That’s because, clearly, we crave that character. We want it. We need it.
“We know that because it has been invented over and over again. It would not have been invented unless we wanted it and needed it.
“So that’s who I see Reacher as right now: The contemporary interpretation of a figure that has been around in every era. US Westerns, obviously, back in the 19th century, featured this exact character. Medieval stories from Europe, Scandinavian sagas from a thousand years ago, Greek myths from 3,000 years ago.”
Alan Ritchson, ideally cast, brings an almost childlike quality as Reacher explains things to often clueless people. There’s humor watching him interact.
“Reacher is a fairly funny guy,” Child allowed. “People have asked, ‘Is Reacher autistic?’ His mind seems to work in different ways. He sees things coming five seconds before anybody else. He’s got to be patient with other people.
“He does spend a lot of time explaining things he sees for other people that don’t.”
Season 3 of “Reacher” streams on Prime Video) Feb. 20
Lee Child at the PEN America Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History last year in New York. (Photo by Christopher Smith/Invision/AP)
