“No one expected that” The star of ‘Reacher’ revealed the plot and the reason why the spin-off has its own name

This morning, Prime Video announced a new Reacher spin-off, at the Prime Video Presents: Trailblazers event in London. Currently known as The Untitled Neagley Project, the spin-off starring Maria Sten as Frances Neagley — the best friend and trusted colleague of Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson)—will follow the titular character in her job as a private investigator in Chicago as she investigates the suspicious death of a close friend.

Sten appeared at the London event alongside Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, and told the audience what they could expect from the new spin-off series, teasing where things might be headed for Neagley.

“I love Neagley. She’s so fun to play, she’s so quirky and has so much complexity. I love doing character work, that’s how I was trained. I read all the books that she was in… I got into what I felt was her psyche. So, for me, I had it all there and I’m just thrilled to expand upon it further. It’s still ‘Reacher’, it’s still fun, splashy action and quick dialogue but it has something that’s Neagley, not Reacher. It’s the same fun tone but [the writers] make it its own.”

Why Has Neagley Got Her Own Show?

Neagley is portrayed, in the series, as Reacher’s closest confidante, the one he goes to if he needs answers. But that’s not the case in Lee Child‘s novels, so why is Neagley so much more involved in the TV series? The character doesn’t appear regularly in the novels, but for a television adaptation, it’s good to have a character that can deliver exposition to the audience. Child told Empire a few months ago why Neagley got an expanded role on-screen, which led to her own series, such was her popularity.

“Neagley was a strategic decision. The one thing you cannot do on screen that you can in a book is have the inside of somebody’s head. Reacher thinks a lot, and there are pages and pages of Reacher puzzling things out. You can’t write an eight-minute scene with Alan Ritchson sitting there, thinking. So we needed a secondary character to bolster the exposition.”

The first two seasons of Reacher are available to stream now on Prime Video, with the third season set to debut in 2025. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates on the Frances Neagley spin-off.