With Prime Video’s Reacher coming to a climactic and action-packed conclusion for its second season, which books will be adapted next?

SUMMARY

Reacher has become one of Prime Video’s most-watched shows, alongside other popular titles like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and Invincible.
 Season 3 of Reacher will explore new adventures for the character and draw inspiration from classic Reacher stories.
 Alan Ritchson will reprise his role as the no-frills hero, and there are still many books from Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series that could be adapted for future seasons.

Alongside other Prime Video exclusive shows like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, the gritty animated superhero show Invincible, and the live-action adaptation of The Wheel of Time, an action crime series called Reacher has climbed the ranks of being one of the streaming platform’s most-watched shows recently.

Leaping out of the pages of author Lee Child’s amazing Jack Reacher book line and starring Alan Ritchson in the leading role, the show has garnered quite a success story overnight.

In the first season, which premiered on Feb. 4, 2022, a former U.S. Army police officer came to save the small town of Margrave, Georgia, from a host of seedy individuals who wanted too much of their own way.

Without much hesitation from the executives over on Prime Video, a second season was green-lit, which premiered 22 months later, in Dec. 2023. This time, the military strongman has to traverse into his past and reunite with his former unit member to find out who murdered one of their own and why.

While Reacher keeps improving with time, despite the overuse of clichés in season 2, the question that seems to be on everybody’s mind is what we can expect from a third iteration. After all, the show has already run through the big-fish-in-the-small-pond as well as the past-meets-present tropes.

When Ritchson discussed season 3 and what the future holds for the show, the actor teased that neither his family nor his past plays a part this time around. Moreso, he said that the character of Jack Reacher would instead be thrown into new, big adventures.

While that statement could be interpreted in many different ways, the former Titans star also mentioned classic Reacher stories would be an inspiration for the third season. As the character we see on the screen comes from Child’s printed works, we might have to look at some of these to find out where the Prime Video series is headed.

Reacher’s Future Comes From His Past

Considering the gritty selfie recently released to tease the third season, there is no question that Alan Ritchson will reprise his role as the no-frills hero. On the other hand, Reacher has twenty-nine famous novels that could be adapted, fourteen short stories, and a spin-off series consisting of eleven titles called The Jack Reacher Cases.

Even with two of these, Killing Floor (the debut book which was retold in the first eight episodes) and Bad Luck and Trouble (the 19th released in 2007 which was the motivation behind season two) being retold in the Prime Video series, there is still a lot left to choose from.

With all that being said, we have to focus on the specific terms Ritchson used in the December interview – that the new episodes will come from the more vintage tales, and family and friends won’t be in the forefront.

Assuming classic means a time before the events of the second season took place, that leaves the first ten Jack Reacher books published between 1997 and 2006.

Take out Killing Floor (the first release), and there are nine. Considering that the third, fourth, seventh, and ninth titles, TripWire, Running Blind, Persuader, and One Shot, look into Reacher’s past in some way, those are least likely (even though they would make compelling stories).

Since the season two finale sees Reacher leave his former military allies, hop on a bus to nowhere (and once again step into his self-proclaimed hobo persona), his future tends to lean towards the six possible titles.

Looking at His Book-Based Adventures

Die Trying (1998) seemingly whisks Reacher and an unknown woman named Holly Johnson halfway across the U.S. when they get kidnapped in Chicago. Then, they must quickly work together to find out what’s happening. With no focus on family or friends, this could be the next coming adventure.

Echo Burning (2001) finds him in Texas grabbing a ride from a woman who claims to be in an abusive marriage but is actually a supposed killer. Once again, Reacher is on his own, away from the characters of Reacher season 2.

Without Fail (2002) takes Reacher into a more political world than ever before, this time protecting the Vice President of the United States. This would surely be a step up from the stories of the last two seasons.

While The Enemy (2004) is set in 1990 and involves the whereabouts of a dangerous briefcase, it wouldn’t be the first occurrence of a time jump.

Finally and most intriguing is The Hard Way (2006), which takes place primarily in New York and is about a deceitful military company director asking for Reacher’s help in rescuing his immediate family who have been taken from him. This drama-filled plot ties right into the main antagonist of this season, doesn’t it?

Regardless of the outcome, fans of the Jack Reacher series on Prime Video will be on the edge of their seat once more as we approach the new season because there is no bad novel in Lee Child’s collection. Every story is arguably as exciting as the last. All episodes of Reacher are streaming now on Prime Video.