‘Titans’ Star Alan Ritchson Cast As ‘Jack Reacher’ For Amazon Series
Amazon’s upcoming series based on Lee Child ‘Jack Reacher‘ novels have found their leading man in the shape of ‘Titans’ star Alan Ritchson it has been announced.
The ‘Jack Reacher’ novels follow the story of the titular army veteran as he travels the US using his skills to investigate suspicious and frequently dangerous situations. The new tv drama comes from ‘Scorpion’ creator Nick Santora who will write, exec produce and serve as showrunner, with the story being based around the first Jack Reacher novel, ‘The Killing Floor’. The series is a co-production between Amazon Studios, Skydance TV and Paramount TV Studios.
News first landed back in November 2018 that Skydance Television and Paramount Television were developing a tv series based on Child’s books. Then in July 2019, Amazon Studios joined the party as co-producer and broadcaster, who gave the go-ahead to make a full season in January this year.
Alan Ritchson has been recently starring as the Hawk half of Hawk & Dove on DC’s ‘Titans’ series, and previously was the lead in Syfy’s 2017 series ‘Blood Drive’. Prior to that, he played Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, in ‘Smallville’, and starring in Spike TV’s sitcom ‘Blue Mountain State’. He also played Gloss in ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’.
As many of you will know, Child’s novel series has already been adapted for the big screen with Tom Cruise in the lead role. However, Child commented previously that, much as he really enjoyed working with Cruise, he always wanted someone with a more imposing physical presence for the role. “The idea is that when Reacher walks into a room, you’re all a little nervous just for that first minute. And Cruise, for all his talent, didn’t have that physicality.” Child conceived Reacher as being around 6’5? tall and 210-250 pounds. Ritchson is 6’4” and 235 pounds, so would seem to be a perfect fit!
Showrunner Nick Santora has been a busy guy since creating ‘Scorpion’. He recently exec produced and created the Emmy-nominated Quibi drama ‘Most Dangerous Game’ starring Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz, along with recent ‘The Fugitive’ series starring Kiefer Sutherland and Boyd Holbrook, also for Quibi. Then, earlier this week, it was announced he was working with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Skydance to create an hourlong spy adventure series, with Schwarzenegger in the lead role.
No news yet on when the ‘Jack Reacher‘ series will premiere on Amazon, but we’ll let you know when we hear more.
