How on Earth are Alan Ritchson and the “Reacher” writers going to outdo the explosive third season, which was based on the best book in Lee Child’s original series, “Persuader?” By packing the fourth with more fights than we’ve ever seen, according to Ritchson. The star of Prime Video’s hugely popular action series spoke to Men’s Journal and hyped up the upcoming season, calling it “a gauntlet” and “a labyrinth of fights” in which Jack Reacher will face off against more faceless thugs than he’s ever had to deal with — which considering this show is essentially a fight montage broken up by cursory dialogue scenes, is saying something.
“Reacher” season 4 is based on the book with the most bonkers reveal in the whole series, “Gone Tomorrow.” Entry number 13 in Child’s now 29-novel-long series, “Gone Tomorrow,” sees Reacher uncovering a clandestine international terrorist plot after he witnesses a suicide on the New York subway. The fourth season is currently filming in Philadelphia, and looks to have moved the action to that city rather than revisiting the Big Apple, where Reacher spent most of his time in season 2. But alongside a location shift, it seems “Reacher” season 4 will also be absolutely packed with fight scenes.
As Ritchson told Men’s Journal during a break in filming the new season, “We shot 11 fights in the first four weeks, and we’ve never shot anything close to that pace. Everywhere Reacher turns, he’s got another group on his heels. It’s fun, wild, and nonstop, and we haven’t done anything like it yet.” To drive the point home, the actor went on to claim that by the end of most shooting days he’s covered in “a sweet mixture of both fake and real blood,” adding, “I don’t think I have any real blood today, which is rare.”
Fights, fights, and more fights is the only way to top Reacher season 3
In his Men’s Journal interview, Alan Ritchson acknowledged that he’s got his work cut out for him when it comes to outdoing “Reacher” season 3. “If you follow the other seasons, you know that they’ve gotten progressively better,” he said. “Season 3, I think, was especially well received. I thoroughly enjoyed the way we put that together, and the mystery and the reveals. It was true to Reacher, and it was him at his best so far.” Part of what made the third season so good was that it embraced the fundamental nature of what makes “Reacher” so infinitely watchable: namely, the action. This is, after all, a show about a really strong man going around beating up a bunch of bad guys, and in season 3, this unapologetic commitment to absurdly over-the-top action was perhaps best embodied by Olivier Richters’ bodyguard Paulie, an absolute mountain of a man who made Ritchson look small. Waiting for the showdown between the two was part of what kept audiences watching, and outdoing that epic brawl was always going to be a tall (pun intended) order.
But it seems Ritchson and the team knew that going into season 4, which sounds as if it will be even more action-packed than the third. What’s more, Ritchson has a newly reinvigorated commitment to the fight scenes in “Reacher,” having acknowledged that lackluster fights were part of what went wrong with season 2. As the actor went on to tell Men’s Journal, “I say this with confidence: We’re somehow upping the stakes quite a bit. This is going to be the best season we’ve had yet. And definitely the bloodiest.” What more could fans of this ridiculously pulpy action series want than that?
