In a complete no-brainer of a move, Amazon Prime Video recently renewed this hit series Reacher for a fourth season. In the process, it was confirmed that Reacher Season 3, which had been filming for months, is now due on the streaming service sometime in 2025. There’s no reason for Prime Video not to continue the hype train for Reacher. It’s easily one of the best dramas available on Prime Video, and the studio seems so confident in the series that they also greenlit a spinoff show that will be structured around Reacher’s longtime military colleague Frances Neagley, played by Maria Sten. We know that Reacher Season 3 will tackle the Lee Child book Persuader. Looking ahead to Reacher Season 4, I think it’s time to tackle one of the strongest story arcs in the long running Lee Child series.
Reacher Season 4 should adapt Lee Child’s book 61 Hours, leading right into Reacher Season 5 doing the follow up, Worth Dying For.
Stop reading now if you don’t want any details about the stories that Lee Child cooks up in these books. But the reason why 61 Hours and Worth Dying For stand out is because it’s one of the first times that the Reacher novels followed strict continuity, leaving 61 Hours off on a cliffhanger that needed to be resolved in Worth Dying For. Readers had to wait a full year to see how the story would be resolved. If Prime Video planned accordingly, they could film the bulk of Reacher Seasons 4 and 5, and space out the release dates fairly close, so the wait wouldn’t be quite as difficult.
And I’m sorry, Alan Ritchson, but because of the snowy locale of this particular plotline, it probably means you will still be filming Reacher in Canada. And we know how much you love that.
The Lee Child Reacher stories pride themselves on shifting locations and sending Jack Reacher wandering around the country – and sometimes the globe – to deliver acts of vengeance. 61 Hours begins with Reacher riding a bus filled with senior citizens through snowy South Dakota, ending up in the town of Bolton after the bus skids and crashes. While there, Reacher encounters an innocent librarian who’s preparing to testify against a local crime lord named Plato… so long as she can stay alive long enough to deliver her testimony.
The plot of 61 Hours delivers all the normal Reacher highlights, including that phenomenal conclusion that left readers guessing. I’ll leave off all the details, in case you want to read the book yourself (and I highly recommend doing that). But also, given the fact that Maria Sten’s Neagley is going to branch out into her own show, it’s during 61 Hours that we first meet Major Susan Turner, commanding officer of Reacher’s old unit who will become a recurring figure in seminal stories that include Never Go Back.
That’s the story that Tom Cruise tried to tackle in his second Jack Reacher movie. But it was too soon in the character’s arc. Too much needed to be developed before audiences were dropped into Never Go Back. The Amazon Prime Video series is taking its time to lay the groundwork. Meaning that Alan Ritchson might one day be able to put his own stamps on the adaptations of One Shot, Never Go Back, and plenty more.
We’re getting ahead of ourselves. There are numerous Lee Child books that could sustain a season of Reacher. And I’m just happy that Reacher Season 4 has been confirmed. But tell me that it’s going to adapt 61 Hours, and I’ll leap through the roof, then settle in for the long wait for it to become a reality on my screen.
