‘I Could Never Fight Like This’: Why Reacher’s Alan Ritchson Worried About The Show’s Action Scenes

Recently on Prime Video, the Reacher series promises a season 2 at least as muscular as the first. It must be said that Amazon’s Jack Reacher fights in a unique way, but his translator Alan Richson was afraid that he would never be able to interpret the character’s particularly brutal style.

Lee Child’s novels have been bestsellers for over 20 years. They are a unique blend of traditional murder mystery thrillers, but with an 80s action hero. Reacher of Child’s work is very similar to Dolph Lundgren in his prime, but the difficulty in finding an actor with the right composition of mind and forehead led to it. The producers of the Jack Reacher movies gave up on this last element and gave it to Tom Cruise instead.

Although the first film was well received, Cruise was not at all suited to the lead role. Amazon’s TV adaptation hit the jackpot with Alan Ritchson seemingly born to play the hero. Season 1 of Reacher adapted the book from the bottom of the abyssA logical starting point since this is also the protagonist’s first book.

But the series has increased its quota of action and fights, where Reacher’s background as a military policeman comes in handy in his encounters. And fans of the novels know that the wandering vigilante is very pragmatic. The only luggage she takes is a toothbrush and passport, and every few days she buys new clothes from charity shops.

This sense of economy also translates into fights: he avoids them if possible, but if he can’t, he wants to end them quickly. That’s why he likes to attack, and in the first season of Reacher, he conveyed the character’s fighting style very well.

The most notable scene sees Reacher confront several inmates in a shower room where he elbows people, kicks them viciously in the groin and even uses his thumb to gouge out their eyes. Prior to the series, Richson was no stranger to action roles, appearing in series like Titans, but Reacher’s way of fighting was new to the actor.

during the interview SlashFilm Regarding training, Richson recalled that he almost had “panic attack“Because he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to master Reacher’s style.

“I said to myself, “I will never be able to fight like this.” My whole career I’ve been fighting and doing stunts and doing a lot of martial arts. Reacher moves in such a way that his elbows and knees become weapons we’re not used to seeing—elbows used like knives.“

Ritchson had to adapt to Richer’s completely different style of choreography, but it’s safe to say that his hard work paid off. The prison fight is the best in the first season because Richson had the most time to prepare. Not only is it an intense and exciting action scene, but it also reveals a lot about Reacher’s character. He doesn’t care about fighting cleanly or decently. He is outnumbered and knows that the only way to survive is to be as brutal as possible, as quickly as possible.

In the aforementioned interview, Richson admits that he had less and less time to prepare as the season progressed. It got to the point where he practiced in parking lots the day before trying to get the move right. If the final fights lack subtlety, they make up for it in their brutal impact.

There’s also a balance between portraying Reacher as a force of nature that can destroy most of his targets and giving his opponents enough fighting chances to make those fights interesting.

Season 2 does not disappoint on this level.