Posted in: Amazon Studios, TV | Tagged: Reacher

Reacher: Alan Ritchson "Wasn't Really Thrilled" with Season 2 Fights

Wanting the fights in the Prime Video series to be as good as possible, Reacher star Alan Ritchson explains why he wasn't happy with Season 2.

There's a reason people like reading the Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child, and why the subsequent TV series Reacher is a big hit: they want to see anti-hero Jack Reacher kill the bad guys, usually with his fists, sometimes with guns. It's a simple, winning formula. Everyone knows that, especially Alan Ritchson, who plays the titular "Wrecking Ball That Walks Like a Man" in the series. Ritchson felt that the fights in season 2 of the series were disappointing – badly shot and edited, and felt the need to correct that mistake for subsequent series.

"Season 2, I wasn't really thrilled with a lot of the action at all," Ritchson explained on The Movie Podcast. "I was really upset with the way some of those fights were executed. We didn't do a good job on the day. We weren't using the right tools. It wasn't cut very well." After he looked at Reacher season 2, Ritchson met with the higher-ups at Prime Video to voice his concerns. "One of my big things going into this was like, I sat everybody down as my creative team and boots on the ground, and I'm like, 'We have to do better,'" he explained on the podcast.

"I got Amazon to approve some new tools that allow us to get really close and intimate with the fight," Ritchson recalled. "I made sure that there weren't extra cameras rolling, so we have, like, a lot of chances to cut. We design things in a way where it was really a ballet with the camera and the action itself." It's no wonder that Season 3 drops the viewer right into the middle of the action. As the actor explained, "I'm so proud of what we caught, and we really found a language for the show."

If you've read the books, you'll know that Reacher frequently and expertly hits and pummels the bad guys into submission and occasionally, death. He does it in an economical and efficient manner that maximises damage to the other guy and little to no injury to himself. Creator Lee Child has said that Reacher is really himself at 9 years old when he got into fights with bullies at school, and, being a big kid, figured out the most effective way to take jerks down. The TV series changes it a bit by making it feel riskier for Reacher, where he gets hit, and also uses guns to shoot the baddies far more than he does in the books. That's television for you.

Reacher is on Prime Video. Season 4 will premiere sometime in 2026.

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