Audience members who made it to the end of the Amazon Prime Video series Reacher learned a hard truth that fans of the Lee Child books have known for years. The hero (played on screen by Alan Ritchson in the new show) moves on after each adventure has concluded, and because he travels light, he leaves people behind in his dust. Child, himself, knows this and yet, the realization that stellar actors Willa Fitzgerald and Malcolm Goodwin wouldn’t be able to stick around for the recently announced second season of Reacher had the bestselling author in literal tears.
The question surfaced during a recent interview to help promote Reacher, which ranks as one of the best Amazon Prime Video shows available to stream at the moment. During a Q-and-A attended by the UK Express, Child was asked about these fan-favorite characters having to leave the show because the next season is expected to adapt a totally different book, set in a new location. Child admitted that the concept made him sad when he wrote Killing Floor, the novel on which this season of Reacher was set. And those feelings extended to the program:
Reacher moves on all the time, and I was so sad I would never see Finley or Roscoe again. I mean, literally, I was almost in tears at that prospect. And I felt the same thing at the end of this season. I wish I’d called it Roscoe, now, and we could have had more!
In some ways, recasting new supporting players for each new season can be exciting. Alan Ritchson gets new personalities against which to bounce Reacher, and the show already has agreed to make him more verbose, a change from the novels, so subtle changes can be enacted as the show continues to explore this fascinating character. But it does mean Willa Fitzgerald, and all of the cool tricks that she can improvise on set, will be out of a job. Unless, of course, her character of Roscoe gets a spinoff, as the actress was very quick to point out to Lee Child in the same Q-and-A:
I’m just waiting for Roscoe! You teased it, and I want you to write it now.
We don’t know when we will see a second season of Reacher. It’s one of the many questions we have regarding season two, which we hope will be answered in time. We know the book that Alan Ritchson would like to adapt for the next season. And we know that his preparation to stay bulky for the role of Jack Reacher involves his favorite cheat food, Popeye’s Chicken Sandwiches. But the rest of the details are up in the air.
At the very least, showrunner Nick Santora knows that the building blocks of the new show work, and he and his team can construct another successful season based on the elements that thrived, given feedback from critics and fans. So dry your eyes, Lee Child. Some of your characters are disappearing, but Jack Reacher walks on to the next mission, and we all plan to follow him.
