Reacher: Alan Ritchson Reveals Studio Promised Series to Another Actor (But Who?)

In less than three years, Reacher has become one of the most popular action shows in the world of TV, and that one of the big reasons for that success is the casting of Alan Ritchson in the lead role. Physically, Ritchson is every bit the behemoth that Lee Child created in the Jack Reacher novels, and his performance has brought the character to life in ways longtime fans hadn’t thought possible. Ritchson and Reacher are one of the truly perfect matches of an actor and a fictional character, which makes it a real surprise to learn that the role was supposed to go to somebody else.

Ritchson recently appeared on a new video for Wired, answering the most popular questions about asked about him online. One of the first questions inquires as to why Ritchson was cast to play Reacher, and he revealed that one of the studios involved in the production had actually promised the part to another actor.

“It was an eight month audition process. You think I felt wanted at the end of an eight month process? And then I found out after the fact, they promised the job to another dude,” Ritchson explained. “And I just happened to be crushing the auditions and they were like, ‘I guess we have to strongly consider this guy who was just supposed to be someone we threw in the mix.’ And I ended up winning the role.”

According to Ritchson, someone else had already been promised the role of Jack Reacher, but he was such a good fit throughout the long audition process that he eventually worked his way into consideration. Now that we’ve all seen the show, it’s easy to imagine Ritchson wrestling the part away from whomever it was intended for.

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What Ritchson doesn’t say in the video is who exactly had been promised the role of Jack Reacher before he was cast. To this point, nobody has opened up and said they were promised a starring turn in Reacher, so it’s anybody’s guess.

A lot of actors auditioned for the role of Jack Reacher, including Brandon Routh, Teddy Sears, and Brian Van Holt. There’s always a chance that one of them could be the mysterious actor who was promised, but there’s no real way to know for sure.

Regardless, all Reacher fans have to be ecstatic that Ritchson wrestled the part away for himself. He’s been a tremendous fit for the character and Reacher has shown no signs of slowing down. There are three episodes left in Season 3, a fourth season has already been ordered, and production just began on a Neagley spin-off series.