Most audiences may agree that we have seen some truly great action movies in recent years, but I might be inclined to say that now is an even better time for action TV shows. Furthermore, a streaming service giving fans of the genre some of the most exciting and grittiest episodic content they could ask for is Amazon Prime Video — home of Jack Ryan with John Krasinski and the Chris Pratt-led The Terminal List, to name a few. However, the real standout from the bunch has to be Reacher.
Based on a series of novels by British author Lee Child, the premiere season of the show was as complex as it was thrilling, gave fans a version of title hero, Jack Reacher (played by Alan Ritchson), that's more accurate to the source material than Tom Cruise’s cinematic portrayal, and was such a massive, immediate hit upon release that Reacher Season 2 was greenlit just three days later. The following is a quick guide to the hulking, witty badass’ upcoming return.
What Is The Reacher Season 2 Premiere Date?
According to Variety, fans will be able to stream the first three episodes of Reacher Season 2 with an Amazon Prime subscription on December 15, 2023. Further episodes will continue to drop every Friday until January 19, 2024.
Previously, fans knew from a sizzle reel of the platform's upcoming content released on Prime Day that they could expect to see Reacher's next adventure some time in December 2023. It is relieving to finally see a definitive premiere date on the 2023 TV schedule to look forward to.
The Reacher Season 2 Trailer Promises Things Are "Bigger" And "Badder"
In addition to the confirmed premiere date, Amazon Prime released the first full-length trailer for Reacher Season 2. Previously, our closest thing to a trailer were social media posts (that we will mention later) in which Alan Ritchson teases things would get much, much "bigger" season for the series' return. The evidence confirming his claim can be seen in the clip below:
We are immediately reminded why we love Reacher as the teaser opens with the hero helping out a random bystander by mercilessly beating the man who stole her car to a pulp. From then, it stars to delve into the main story -- involving the title character's relationship to his team of "Special Investigators" -- accompanied by a montage of wicked action and Heart's "Crazy on You" playing over the soundtrack.
Reacher Season 2 Is Based On Lee Child’s Bad Luck And Trouble
Killing Floor — the first book of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series and his 1997 debut novel — appropriately served as the basis for Reacher Season 1, which sees the titular former Army Ranger embroiled in a conspiracy that becomes a mission of personal revenge while visiting a small town in Georgia. When asked which novel he would adapt next, star Alan Ritchson suggested going in chronological order and taking inspiration from Child’s second book, Die Trying.
Well, as Ritchson himself revealed in a tweet, the series is going in a different direction, but still will see our hero go down a path of vengeance once again. Reacher Season 2 will be based on the 11th book in the series, Bad Luck and Trouble, in which Reacher finds himself involved in yet another deadly conspiracy with shocking ties to his own personal life. This time, it is people he used to serve in the Army with who suddenly start turning up dead, leading to a bitter reunion with surviving members of his old special investigations unit — the Elite 110th — as they work together to get to the bottom of it.
Alan Ritchson Returns To Lead The Reacher Cast
Standing at over 6 feet and weighing 205 lbs, Alan Ritchson was more than just the perfect choice to lead Amazon Prime’s Reacher cast as the title hero, but is, practically, the physical manifestation of Jack Reacher as Child described him in his books. Thus, we can thankfully say that the physically imposing, but endearingly talented, actor — also known from movies and TV shows like the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot and the raunchy sports comedy, Blue Mountain State, to name a few — is coming back to reprise what might be remembered one day as his definitive role.
One of the questions we had about Reacher Season 2 upon its initial announcement was whether or not any actors from Season 1 might join Ritchson for the next installment. We then speculated that Frances Neagley — a former colleague and friend of Reacher who appears in several of Child’s novels — might have the best chance of making another appearance. Indeed, Maria Sten has been tapped to reprise the role for more ass-kicking in the Reacher Season 2 cast.
New Reacher Season 2 Cast Members Include Robert Patrick, Serinda Swan, And More
It does not look like any other character favorites — such as Malcom Goodwin as Oscar Finlay or Willa Fitzgerald as Roscoe Conklin — will show up this time, considering how Season 1 ended, but the Reacher Season 2 cast will feature plenty of exciting newcomers. Serinda Swan of Marvel’s Inhumans stars as private investigator Karla Dixon, who also served in the Army with Reacher alongside Luke Bilyk as Calvin Franz, Dean McKenzie as Stan Lowery, Edsson Morales as Manuel Orozco, Andres Collantes as Jorge Sanchez, and Shannon Kook-Chun as Tony Swan. Amazon Prime’s Outer Range star, Shaun Sipos, has been cast as another military vet named David O’Donnell, whom Reacher is also very close to.
As an elusive figure known only as A.M., we have The Sandman cast’s Ferdinand Kingsley, who will also appear on Reacher Season 2 alongside Terminator 2's Robert Patrick as former NYPD detective Shane Langston (a role originally cast with Rory Cochrane, according to Deadline). The Wire star Domenick Lombardozzi plays current NYPD detective, Guy Russo and, also playing a New York cop named Marsh, is Al Sapienza (who had a recurring role on fellow Amazon thriller, Jack Ryan). Josh Blacker stars as Lt. Col. Hortense Fields — overseer of the Elite 110th — and Ty Victor Olsson plays a vicious contract killer targeting Reacher’s unit named Saropian.
Reacher Season 2 Wrapped Production In February 2023
Principal photography on Reacher Season 2 is finished, as of February 2023. The conclusion was officially announced on a video posted to the official Instagram account of both the series and star Ritchson, who is seen stepping off the set in makeup that suggests, in typical fashion, things get a little ugly for his character. Check out the full clip below:
The comically large slate Ritchson claps to cap off Season 2's production is a reference to another Instagram video posted in September 2022 to announced that filming had began. It sees the actor claiming he and the crew are going “bigger and better than ever” and kicking things off by slapping the show’s official slate before claiming it is too small to represent the series' sophomore run and trading it in for bigger and bigger slates. The slate from the latest clip is, appropriately, larger than them all.
Developer Nick Santora Is Coming Back As Showrunner
The person responsible for bringing Reacher to television is Nick Santora — previously known as an executive producer for Prison Break and for his Emmy nominated adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game that was originally made for Quibi. Santora is, once again, running things for Reacher Season 2 and also shares an executive producing credit with the person responsible for creating Jack Reacher in the first place: Lee Child.
Also signed on as executive producers for Reacher Season 2 are Don Granger (also a producer for Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher movies and other action films), Scott Sullivan (who wrote three episodes of Season 1), and Adam Higgs, who also worked with Santora on CBS’ Scorpion. Representing Skydance Television as EPs are David Ellison, David Goldberg, and Bill Bost.
While Alan Ritchson’s larger-than-life hero is in for some bad luck, given the success of its debut run, we are sure that Amazon will have no trouble scoring another big win with Reacher Season 2.
