Reacher has swiftly become one of Amazon Prime Video’s best shows, and each season has featured the unraveling of a specific mystery: Season 1 saw Reacher investigate his brother’s murder in a small town and Season 2 has him reteaming with his own unit after one of them shows up murdered. Both are based on books written by Lee Child, and Season 3 will be no exception. Reacher Season 3 is already in production and I have just been champing at the bit to find out what direction it will be going in, so this latest update is welcome news.
Amazon confirmed in a release today that Season 3 of Reacher will be based on Child’s book Persuader when it hits the TV schedule. While Season 1 of Reacher started out simply enough, with that series being based on the first of Lee Child’s novels, Killing Floor, things shifted thereafter. Since then, the series has hopped around, with Season 2 being based on Bad Luck and Trouble, the 11th book in the series. Persuader happens to be Book 7.
CinemaBlend did an interview with Alan Ritchson a few weeks ago, and he was a little reticent to share the book Season 3 would be based on – though he did hint the book the show was choosing was a “Top 10” Jack Reacher favorite title for most fans. So, getting this news today was a little like Christmas coming really, really early this year.
Reacher is wildly popular for Amazon Prime –in fact the video service mentions the audience grew 50% between Season 1 and 2 – but given there are currently nearly 30 books in the Jack Reacher franchise, I approve of this strategy of hopping around. Even if Ritchson loves the role, I doubt he’s looking to make 30 seasons, so why not make the best of the best? Or at least make the stories that translate best to the small screen.
One thing that Season 3 will have in common with the other two seasons (outside of the return of Alan Ritchson) will be the return of Maria Stern as Frances Neagley. The character was present in Season 1 to help Jack Reacher in key moments. In Season 2, we got way more background on the character after Reacher re-enlisted some former 110th Special Investigations Unit co-workers from his time in the Army, before he became a wanderer with only a toothbrush to his name.
It's hard to understand Reacher as a character in some ways, so it's been really nice to have someone like Neagley as a consistent counterpoint on the series and I'm happy the character will be back.
Also to note, in Season 2, those of us with a Prime subscription got a few cameos and mentions of characters from Season 1, which made me happy, so hopefully in Season 3 we’ll get more returning names and faces as well. I wouldn’t mind seeing Serinda Swan or Shaun Sipos pop in anytime, either, though I’m most excited to see Stern continuing the role.
Anyway, because Reacher is currently filming, I hope we’ll hear more in the coming weeks. We’ll be sure to keep you posted every step of the way.
