Jack Reacher Star Alan Ritchson Reveals New Details on Amazon Series

Jack Reacher might be one of the most beloved action franchises of all time, which has made the news of the series’ jump to the small screen pretty intriguing for fans. With a Jack Reacher TV show getting a series order by Amazon Prime, and Titans and Smallville star Alan Ritchson now cast in the lead role, there’s definitely a lot of potential for storytelling once the series does arrive. In a recent interview with Collider, Ritchson teased exactly what the series will entail, confirming that it will draw inspiration from Lee Childs’ first Jack Reacher novel, 1997’s The Killing Floor.

“I don’t know how much I can say. I’ll say that we’re gonna be doing a book a season, so the first season will be the first book,” Ritchson explained. “I think that’s such a great way to do this. I can see why it’d be exciting as a film, but the slow burn is what I love so much about the books. The way that he goes down the checklist and picks apart these cases, you need time. It’s okay to enjoy that. I think spending a season on each book is gonna be really enjoyable for audiences.”

Ritchson also explained the process of being cast in the role, and revealed that he’d actually had to go through two separate auditions in order to land the part.

“It’s funny, I actually didn’t get the role at first. I’m not exactly six foot five and I’m not exactly 250, and I had heard that they were being very specific with their physical demands,” Ritchson revealed. “After working with Tom Cruise and a lot of fans being upset that he didn’t really have the physicality, as great as he was in the role, they really wanted to get that right. I was like, ‘Well, they wanna read me, but I know they’re gonna find someone like Dwayne Johnson, who’s a huge dude.’ I auditioned for the part and it was good, it was just that my take on it was a little different than what they had in mind, at the time.”

“There was a shake-up with who was casting, so they started again from scratch, and I’d already been passed on, as had everybody who did an audition,” Ritchson continued. “But when they came back around, they picked a few tapes that they’d seen already, and I was one of them, so they wanted me to come back and try again, and it worked out. The closer I got to that, the more familiar I became with the Reacher stuff. I’ve really fallen in love. I’ve read the books now and Reacher has some big shoes to fill, metaphorically speaking. I’m just so thrilled to be a part of it. It’s my favorite character that I’ve played yet.”

The Jack Reacher series follows the titular character, a former major in the Army’s military police who roams the United States taking odd jobs and investigating dangerous situations. Child’s books have sold over 100 million copies worldwide, resulting in over a billion dollars in global sales. He is expected to serve as an EP on the series, with Scorpion‘s Nick Santora operating as writer and showrunner.

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