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Reacher "The American James Bond" Just Not As "Predictable": Ritchson

Alan Ritchson explains how Reacher "is the American James Bond" and how Bond became "a little misogynistic and predictable at this point."

Just so there's no confusion? Reacher star Alan Ritchson (The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) loves 007 – he just thinks that the character has become "a little misogynistic and predictable at this point." The topic of James Bond came up during a recent interview Ritchson had with Entertainment Weekly, with Ritchson explaining why he wouldn't be interested in portraying the famed secret agent. "It's funny; I kind of feel like Reacher is the American James Bond, and I've never had more fun playing a character. I love those larger-than-life, over-the-top action thrillers and spy movies and the heists that are smart and ahead of the audience. That's really great," Ritchson shared – before getting to the key difference he sees between the characters. "I feel like Bond, to me personally – people are going to hate me for saying this – I love Bond, but I feel like it's all a little misogynistic and predictable at this point."

Though he respects aspects of the franchise's main secret agent, Ritchson doesn't believe the character has enough going for it to change with the times. "Reacher, to me, is like the American Bond, and I think it's a cool way to go about doing it where it's a little less purposefully cool," he adds. "He's not in on how slick he is. I don't feel like we can have characters these days that are in on the joke. Either they know that they're funny, they know that they're smart, they know that they're very cool or capable or invincible — I feel like it reduces the stakes of stories, and we've seen too many movies, we're too savvy as an audience to be entertained by that."

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."

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