Filming is well underway on Reacher season 3, and it has recently been announced that Alan Ritchson’s ex-marine will face off against a formidable nemesis in the upcoming season on Prime Video. Olivier Richters will portray a hulking fan-favorite villain from the books called Paulie, and at 7 foot 2 inches, he is every bit the match for the title character.

The new season of Reacher will be based on Persuader: Lee Child’s seventh book in the series. Alongside the return of Alan Ritchson as the eponymous hero, Maria Sten will reprise her role of Frances Neagley. Newcomers to the upcoming third season of the popular action series include Anthony Michael Hall, Brian Tee, Johnny Berchtold, Roberto Montesinos and Daniel David Stewart.

Who is Olivier Richters, and what has he been in?

Olivier Richters is the world’s tallest bodybuilder, who goes by the nickname, The Dutch Giant. At 7 foot 2 inches, the Dutchman is an imposing figure and has landed a series of supporting roles in Hollywood movies playing henchmen. In recent years, he has appeared in Black Widow, The King’s Man, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Richters was born on September 5, 1989, in Hilversum, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. American actor Richard Kiel, who played the huge villain Jaws in two James Bond films in the late 1970s, was reportedly the inspiration for Richters to take up acting. Richters got his first acting role in the Dutch production De Zomer Van 45, but he first caught the attention of Hollywood with a guest role in the first season of the British crime series, Gangs of London in 2020, playing a character called Duncan.

Who will Richters play in Reacher Season 3?

Reacher Season 3

Starring
Alan Ritchson, Maria Sten, Anthony Michael Hall, Olivier Richters, Brian Tee, Johnny Berchtold, Roberto Montesinos and Daniel David Stewart.

Based on the book, Persuader by
Lee Child

Created by
Nick Santora

Olivier Richters will play a character called Paulie in Reacher season 3. Paulie is the bodyguard of Anthony Michael Hall’s character, Zachary Beck, the owner of a rug import company under investigation for being involved in a cover-up for an illegal operation.

Anthony Michael Hall talked about Oliver Richters’ casting in a recent interview with CinemaBlend:

He reminds me of, do you remember when we were kids? The Spy Who Loved Me , the Jaws character that Richard Kiel played? He was a literal giant, like seven foot two. … That character [Paulie] does live in the show, and they have an epic battle. I don’t want to give it away, but yeah, they definitely meet as they do in the book. … You know, Reacher and Paulie colliding – there’s something Marvel about that, right? They’re like two superhero-sized guys, so it’s kind of cool.

Who is Paulie in the Persuader book?

Hall’s tease of a big fight between Reacher and Paulie proves season 3 is raising the stakes, and it’ll be music to the ears of fans of the series. It will also be an exciting prospect for the many fans of Lee Child’s book, Persuader, which season 3 is based on. In the book, Paulie is described as being at least six inches taller than Reacher, and ten inches wider. As fans know, Alan Ritchson’s Reacher is an intimidating figure, but nobody has come close to matching his physicality in the series thus far.

Paulie’s description in the book makes the casting of Olivier Richters seem like the perfect match to play him, and it’s set to be one of the highlights of season 3, when the two men come up against each other. Paulie is taller and weighs about 200 pounds more than Reacher, so he’ll undoubtedly be his biggest adversary yet.

What is The Persuader book about?

Persuader is Lee Child’s seventh book in the Jack Reacher series, and interestingly, it is told in the first person, which could see season 3 being the most personal yet for the television series.

The story sees Reacher working off the books for the DEA, to bring down a suspect called Zachary Beck (played by Anthony Michael Hall). A kidnapping of Beck’s son, Richard, is staged in order for Reacher to ‘rescue’ him, and get him undercover with Beck after successfully gaining his confidence.

The DEA try to pull Reacher out of his undercover mission when they realize Beck is not involved in drugs, and it’s actually gun running that is his secret operation. Reacher is less than keen on backing out and continues the mission, as his own personal motivation is to get to Beck’s boss, Frances Xavier Quinn, who murdered his colleague, Dominique Kohl, ten years before.

There are bound to be deviations in season 3 from the source material, but the majority of the story will probably match up to the book, after Reacher season 1 and 2 were relatively faithful to Killing Floor and Bad Luck and Trouble respectively.