Posted in: Amazon Studios, NBC, Peacock, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: Alan Ritchson, nbc, Reacher, saturday night live, snl
Reacher: Alan Ritchson REALLY Wants SNL; S02 Stunt Scene BTS Video
Reacher star Alan Ritchson wants NBC's Saturday Night Live to know he's ready to host; a behind-the-scenes look at a Season 2 fight scene.
Over the weekend, we had a chance to check in with Prime Video's Reacher star Alan Ritchson to see what he had to say about some of the items on his "Career Bucket List." For that go-around, Ritchson may have been sending an unofficial "Bat-signal" to DC Studios CEOs James Gunn & Peter Safran before they announce any The Brave and the Bold casting because he would like a run at The Dark Knight in his future. But this time, we're checking in on a topic that's very close to our hearts – NBC's Saturday Night Live. Kicking in at around the 2:30 mark in the video above, Ritchson doesn't hesitate to pick hosting the long-running late-night sketch comedy/music over the Oscars – making it clear that hosting SNL would be his "dream." Considering how successful Reacher is and the number of projects that Ritchson has coming up, having Ritchson working the stages of Studio 8H should be out the realm of being a very possible reality. So how do we make it happen?
In a post from earlier today, Ritchson shared a behind-the-scenes video sent to him from Shaun Šipoš showing how Ritchson and stuntman Ryan Tarran working through a fight scene during the second season:
Reacher Season 3: What We Know So Far…
Back in January 2024, we learned that the third season would be tackling Lee Child's seventh novel, 2003's Persuader, with Reacher going undercover to rescue an informant held by a haunting foe from his past. In February, we learned that Anthony Michael Hall & Sonya Cassidy were joining Ritchson and the returning Maria Sten (Frances Neagley) during the currently-in-production season. Hall's Zachary Beck is a formidable & successful businessman – and a widow and single father of a 20-year-old son, Richard – who owns a rug import company that Reacher believes is a cover for some shady dealings. Cassidy's Susan Duffy is an extremely intelligent and tough DEA agent from Boston with a sharp and sarcastic sense of humor.
In March 2024, we learned that Brian Tee had joined the cast in the series regular role of Quinn. A physically imposing and intimidating character, Quinn was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army whom Reacher (Ritchson) investigated a decade prior when he sold military secrets to hostile nations. In addition, Johnny Berchtold was cast in the series regular role of Richard Beck, a sensitive and artistic college student who lost his mother when he was young and is the only son of businessman Zachary Beck (Hall). Five years ago, he was the victim of a traumatic kidnapping that left him mutilated.
Roberto Montesinos' series regular Guillermo Villanueva is a DEA agent on the verge of retirement who has served as the mentor and father figure of Agent Susan Duffy (Cassidy). Paunchy with bad knees and a good-natured sense of humor, Villanueva loves and cares about Duffy – even though they bust each other's chops all the time. Daniel David Stewart's recurring Steven Elliot is a clean-cut rookie DEA agent – a lovable guy who's fresh-faced, new to the job, and still learning.
"Neagley [returning] 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," Child explained during an interview with Empire Magazine. As for the series jumping around when it comes to the novels that it's choosing for its season's inspiration, Child explains that it makes perfect sense – and fits with the story they're trying to tell on the small screen. "There was no reason to do them in order. We had massive discussions about it. The thinking went like this: 'Killing Floor' introduces Reacher as a person. So, which book shows his professional life and what he did while he was in the Army? The result was 'Bad Luck And Trouble,'" the author added.
Though not looking to make any spoiler headlines, Santora did have a few things to share about the series that he would like to see run for "at least four years" with The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview:
Santora on the Decision-Making Process in Selecting a Season's Book: "It's always a group decision. The studio has a lot of thoughts and ideas on it, as does Amazon, as they should because they know what they are doing. Alan will always have thoughts as well, because Alan is a really smart guy, and he has certain stories that are his favorites. And I also discussed it a lot with my writing team. They are great writers, and we all have instincts, for lack of a better word, as to which books might lend themselves to the screen a little bit better than others. And then we all collectively come to a decision, and then we all hope for the best!"
Santora on Maintaining Jack Reacher's "Loner" Spirit in Season 3: "What I can say is the spirit of Reacher is that he is a loner and a drifting hobo, to use Reacher's terminology. So, Reacher is never going to have a band of merry folks that travel along with him and help him solve crimes and have adventures. The DNA of Reacher is that he moves about on his own and teams up with good people when there's bad lurking about, and then he says goodbye to those people and goes on his way. And that's what we're always trying to stay true to."