When author Lee Child’s popular literary badass was first adapted for screen in the 2012 action thriller, Jack Reacher, fans of the ongoing book series were just a bit disappointed to see the famously large-sized title character played by Tom Cruise. Well, 10 years later, the fans have certainly gotten what they asked for in the 6’2” Alan Ritchson, who is a perfect match for the former Army major emotionally and, especially, physically on the Amazon Prime original series, Reacher.
You almost cannot help but wonder how things might have turned out if the actor had been cast in the role earlier. However, at the end of the day, it is just really cool to see him play the lead in a hit series after spending most of his career in smaller roles, or even hiding under CGI performance capture. If you have already made it to the Reacher Season 1 ending and are curious to check out the Alan Ritchson movies and TV shows I am referring to on streaming, allow us to point you in the right direction, starting with a role that is nothing like Jack Reacher… mentally, that is.
Blue Mountain State And Blue Mountain State: The Rise Of Thadland (Tubi, PlutoTV, IMDb TV)
An underachieving college student (Darin Brooks) initially joins the football team for female attention, but takes it more seriously by his senior year when, in an effort to save the team’s beloved campus boarding house, he must throw the ultimate party in honor of his now-professional former teammate (Alan Ritchson).
Why they are worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: For three seasons, Alan Ritchson gave a thoroughly hilarious performance on Blue Mountain State as the brawny, but not very brainy, quarterback, Thad Castle, whom the actor would reprise in 2016 for the cult comedy series’ feature-length spin-off, Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland - an even more brazenly raunchy celebration of the college life without any class (and not just in the academic sense).
Stream Blue Mountain State on Tubi.
Stream Blue Mountain State on Pluto TV.
Stream Blue Mountain State on IMDb TV.
Buy Blue Mountain State on Amazon.
Stream Blue Mountain State: The Rise Of Thadland on Tubi.
Stream Blue Mountain State: The Rise Of Thadland on IMDb TV.
Rent/Buy Blue Mountain State: The Rise Of Thadland on Amazon.
The Wedding Ringer (Amazon Rental)
Realizing that he has no male friend to be his Best Man just two weeks before his marriage, a socially awkward man (Josh Gad) enlists the help of a business owner (Kevin Hart) who poses as the best friend and Best Man for socially awkward grooms for a living.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: In 2015, Alan Ritchson steals the show once again in one of the best Kevin Hart movies,The Wedding Ringer, as Kip Loyola - a stammering, absent-minded former soap opera actor who becomes one of many hired by Hart’s character, Jimmy Callahan, to pose as the wedding party groomsmen for Josh Gad’s character, Doug Harris.
Rent/Buy The Wedding Ringer on Amazon.
Titans (HBO Max)
In the midst of his fallout with Bruce Wayne, former Batman sidekick Dick “Robin” Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) attempts to fight crime on his own, only to end up joining a team of other young, costumed vigilantes who become his new family.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: After Blue Mountain State and before becoming the lead of the Reacher cast, Alan Ritchson played another character with a background in football named Hank Hall, otherwise known as Hawk from the romantically-linked crimefighting duo Hawk and Dove, on the HBO Max show, Titans, for three seasons.
Stream Titans on HBO Max.
Rent/Buy Titans on Amazon.
Smallville (Hulu)
High school student Clark Kent (Tom Welling) discovers his extra-terrestrial origins, comes to terms with his extraordinary abilities, and uses them to protect his loved ones or strangers in need while growing up in a small Kansas town.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: Years before joining Titans, Alan Ritchson made his acting debut in 2005 on another popular DC show, the Superman prequel, Smallville, as Arthur Curry (otherwise known as Aquaman) and would return to plan the Atlantean in three more episodes.
Stream Smallville on Hulu.
Buy Smallville on Amazon.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movies (Amazon Prime, Paramount Plus)
An ambitious reporter (Megan Fox) discovers that four young, anthropomorphic reptiles with impressive martial skills are living in the sewers of New York and becomes their aid in an ongoing battle against a ruthless crime organization.
Why they are worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: Between his DC superhero roles, Alan Ritchson leant his voice (and best Brooklyn accent) to and performed the motion capture for a whole different kind of comic book role: a beefier depiction of the red-masked Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2014, and in the sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, two years later.
Stream Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Amazon Prime.
Stream Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Paramount Plus.
Rent/Buy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Amazon.
Stream Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows on Paramount Plus.
Rent/Buy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows on Amazon.
Above The Shadows (Hulu)
A young woman (Olivia Thirlby) who is now inexplicably forgotten and invisible to everyone else seeks help from a club bouncer (Alan Ritchson) who is, somehow, the only person able to see her, in exchange for helping him get his professional fighting career back on track.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: In 2019, Alan Ritchson would reunite with Megan Fox as former lovers broken apart by his declining mixed martial arts career in Above the Shadows - a unique urban fairy tale from writer and director Claudia Myers that sees Ritchson duke out some impressive fight choreography in the ring before he learned how to fight with his elbows on the set of Reacher.
Stream Above The Shadows on Hulu.
Rent/Buy Above The Shadows on Amazon.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Hulu)
A year after surviving the futuristic nation of Panem’s annual deadly tournament for minors, District 12 victors Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) are forced to enter the arena once more as part of a conspiracy by the Capital to prevent a rebellion.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: Ironically enough, you do not actually get to see very much fighting from Alan Ritchson in his role as District 1 victor and returning career tribute, Gloss, in the 2013 adaptation of Catching Fire - the second book in the dystopian YA novel trilogy - but he is involved in one of the most devastating death scenes from what might be the best of the Hunger Games movies, arguably.
Stream The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on Hulu.
Rent/Buy The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on Amazon.
Office Uprising (Crackle)
An aimless office worker (Brenton Thwaites), his best friend (Deadpool's Karan Soni), and the woman he has a crush on (former Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist star Jane Levy) become each other’s last hopes for survival when the majority of their weapons manufacturing company are turned into homicidal maniacs by a bad batch of an experimental energy drink.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: Alan Ritchson is actually quite active (not to mention creepy and hilariously manic) as an angry marketing associate in the more comically brutal fight to the death that takes place in the Crackle exclusive, Office Uprising - a fun, albeit gory, 2018 horror-comedy that also stars Ritchson’s Titans co-star, Brenton Thwaites.
Stream Office Uprising on Crackle.
Blood Drive (Amazon Purchase)
In an alternate 1999, a cop trying to do the right thing in a broken world (Alan Ritchson) and a reckless street racer (Christine Ochoa) team-up in a high stakes cross-country race from Los Angeles to Phoenix with automobiles that use human blood as fuel.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: Alan Ritchson participated in a race to the death as the lead role of the short-lived, but much-loved, Syfy original horror-comedy TV show Blood Drive - creator James Roland’s wild, action-packed love letter to the grindhouse movie era.
Dark Web: Cicada 3301 (Hulu)
A computer hacker (Jake Kesy), his best friend (Ron Funches), and a librarian (Conor Leslie) become reluctant participants in a competitive recruitment challenge orchestrated by an elusive online society.
Why it’s worth checking out if you like Alan Ritchson: In 2021, Alan Ritchson made his directorial debut with Dark Web: Cicada 3301 - a comedy/thriller inspired by a real, mysterious online phenomenon that he also co-wrote and stars in, along with his Titans co-star, Conor Leslie.
Stream Dark Web: Cicada 3301 on Hulu.
Rent/Buy Dark Web: Cicada 3301 on Amazon.
Alan Ritchson will be returning to the director’s chair for a more serious horror film called Bad Seeds of Loving Spring. Be sure to keep him eye out for him in the second season of Reacher, which was confirmed by Amazon Prime quickly after Season 1 premiered.
