Before Reacher, Alan Ritchson played DC’s baddest superhero on TV

Today he is the star of Reacher, but yesterday he played a different kind of hero, the superhero of the oceans…

The flagship series, currently a hit on Prime Video, has effectively thrust Alan Ritchson into the spotlight after a prolific career in film and television. So, almost 20 years ago, the actor was part of the cast of Smallville, the 2000s CW series alongside Tom Welling that chronicled the youth and origins of Clark Kent, also known as Superman.

As a DC series, we were able to see legendary superheroes such as Arrow (Justin Hartley), Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort) or even Aquaman… Alan Richson !

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Thus, the actor appeared in four episodes of season 5, episodes in which Clark meets Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, a young man gifted with extraordinary underwater powers. The latter arrived in Smallville in hopes of sabotaging a Luthorcorp experiment that threatens underwater life. Arthur soon begins to develop feelings for Lois, played by Erica Durance.

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Aquaman, source of ridicule?

While Aquaman has since been granted the rights to his own film version and his own series of films, the character is often considered one of DC’s worst. For what ? Many agreed that his power was not that great, especially for someone known as Lord of the Oceans. Therefore, many series, movies (or in popular culture itself) openly mocked him – as in The Big Bang Theory or Family Guy, which used the superhero as a source of ridicule.

Only Jason Momoa, Warner Bros. Finally decides to make the character into a movie, despite all the jokes against him. Thus, he will make his debut in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, before returning in Justice League the following year (and the Snyder Cut much later), then in his own saga with Aquaman in 2018 and its sequel Aquaman and the Lost. Kingdom in 2023.

Alan Ritchson can be seen in Reacher exclusively on Prime Video or in Smallville, which is also available in its entirety on the Amazon platform. The first part of Aquaman is still available on Netflix.