Understandably, Lee Child should have some say in the direction Jack Reacher is headed. He created him after all. However, with the help of Alan Ritchson and three massively successful seasons on Prime Video, “Reacher” has gotten the attention that even Tom Cruise’s iteration struggled to attain. It’s probably because of this that when it comes to the leading and massive man bringing the character to life on the small screen, Lee Child refuses to give Ritchson acting notes.
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Speaking to The Express about the growing success of the show that began adapting his work in 2022, Child made it clear that it isn’t his place to say how Ritchson handles Reacher: “I feel like I don’t want to give him advice and I don’t want him to ask for advice. What I’m hoping is that we cast him correctly and then it is up to him.” Earning the part gave Ritchson the go-ahead to take the walking man mountain wherever he likes. “It gives him, to be unquestioned, it gives him confidence to go ahead and give the right result,” Child explained. “I think that if I was nagging at him all the time, ‘Do this, do that’, I think it would destroy his confidence and make him a little nervous. So, my best role is to stay out of that.”
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Thankfully, though, the man who made Reacher has nothing but praise for the star who’s helping carry the torch into television, and both want the best for the hero and his future.
Child commends Ritchson’s research in Reacher
Child still believes casting Ritchson was the winning element to the show. “If somebody asked me, ‘What am I happiest about?’ it is that casting decision,” confessed the author. “We knew it was critical, obviously. The title of the show is ‘Reacher.’ It’s all about him. He carries it.” So far, he’s done a commendable job, with the latest season in the series earning rave reviews praising Ritchson’s continued success with the character, who returned in the record-breaking third season to adapt arguably the best book in the “Jack Reacher” series, “Pretender.”
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As Child puts it: “He’s a smart guy, he reads the books over and over again very closely and mines them for the emotional cues and so on. And I think he does that really well.” But in taking on the role of a man who is renowned for getting in the occasional scrap, Child also praised Ritchson for coming to work and stepping into the boots of a hero who’s using them to kick in doors or people’s faces regularly. “Alan is super hard-working and very professional. It’s a brutal process, the fight scenes he has to do are agonising, painful. And he takes it all on the chin, and that then means the rest of the cast have to live up to that.” That includes his co-star, Maria Sten who plays Frances Neagley, who we predict will be hitting just as hard in her own spin-off, which is now in production.
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