Why Reacher Adapts The Books Out Of Order Explained By Author Lee Child
Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher novel series, explains why the Reacher TV series adapts his books out of the order in which they were written.
SUMMARY
Jack Reacher novel series author Lee Child explains why the Reacher TV show adapts his novels out of order.
Child explains how intentional the Reacher team is about which of his novels they choose to adapt, letting each book reveal something about Reacher’s life and story.
The anthology nature of the novels allows the show to pick and choose which stories suit their purposes.
Author Lee Child explains why Reacher adapts his books out of order. Based on Child’s Jack Reacher novel series, Reacher is a Prime Video show focusing on the eponymous Jack Reacher as he comes across crimes and brings justice. Reacher stars Alan Ritchson and has had two seasons on Amazon.
Speaking with Empire, Child explains why the Reacher TV show adapts his novels out of order. According to the author “there was no reason to do them in order.” Because of this, Child and the team used storytelling logic to parse through which books could make the most sense for their story, arriving at their eventual solution. Check out the full quote from Child below:
There was no reason to do them in order. We had massive discussions about it. The thinking went like this: Killing Floor introduces Reacher as a person. So, which book shows his professional life, and what he did while he was in the Army? The result was Bad Luck And Trouble .
Why Reacher Has Novel Adaptations Our Of Order Explained
Unlike the sophomore season, Reacher season 1 does align with the book’s release order. Killing Floor is the first of the Jack Reacher novels, and became the first in the series to be adapted. Based on Child’s statement, this is a logical decision as the book “introduces Reacher as a person,” a task the show also had to do in its premiere season.
Reacher season 2 jumps way ahead, however, to adapt the eleventh book in the Child series, Bad Luck and Trouble. While jumping this far ahead may seem like an odd choice for most series, Child clearly outlines how intentional this was, for the book showed his “professional life.” Reacher has already been renewed for season 3, with the season set to adapt the seventh Reacher novel, Persuader.
What allows Reacher to jump around so much is the way that Child wrote the series. Though the protagonist is shared throughout the novels, the plots are primarily standalone, meaning that they can be read and understood in any order.
This style enables the Reacher TV series to pick and choose which of the novels’ stories best suits their dramatic purposes. From Child’s description, it sounds like the Reacher team has been very intentional about these choices, leading to a stronger final product.
