Alan Ritchson Teases His ‘Wise-Ass’ New Take on ‘Reacher’ (VIDEO)

Damian Holbrook February 3, 2022, 10:30 am

OK, try to ignore the arms. We get it, they’re massive. In fact, they may be two of the best visual effects in Prime Video‘s Reacher. But they are nothing compared to the muscle that star Alan Ritchson puts into his portrayal of the hulking hero from author Lee Child’s best-selling novels.

“Reacher is a former detective in the military…he would hunt down soldiers who had gone AWOL,” explains the Titans alum during his video interview with TV Insider. “So, now that he’s retired, he’s a vagrant. He wanders the world and, of course, stumbles into problems wherever he goes.”

Malcolm Goodwin as Oscar Finlay, Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher in Reacher

The first season is based on Child’s 1997 book Killing Floor, which introduced readers to the 6-foot-5 monolith as he winds up uncovering the deep-seated corruption in the small, idyllic town of Margrave, Georgia. And while on the page Reacher isn’t exactly verbose, Ritchson was able to read between the lines. He notes that he saw the character as a, “funny wise-ass with that dry sardonic sense of humor. I was surprised at how I would laugh out loud while reading these books.”

Prime Video Puts Fans Through a 'Reacher' Challenge

Still, he adds, you don’t need to have the books on your shelves to enjoy the series. Filled with the bare-knuckle action that Banshee fans have been missing, a twisty plot (the opener’s murder takes a turn you will not see coming) and an primo ensemble that includes iZombie‘s Malcolm Goodwin, Little Women‘s Willa Fitzgerald, Smallville queen Kristin Kruek and the rightfully in-demand Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows), Ritchson promises, “it’ll be surprisingly entertaining for people who haven’t read the books.”