Any time a beloved novel or series of books gets adapted, fans worry that those who are in charge might not get it right. As much as I enjoyed Christopher McQuarrie’s translation of Lee Child’s One Shot (with Tom Cruise in the lead role of Jack Reacher), some things about that movie just didn’t jive with what I – as a die hard fan – want from a Jack Reacher adaptation. Then, along came Reacher, easily one of the best shows available on Amazon Prime Video, and something you need to watch immediately if you have an Amazon Prime Video subscription. It was a flawless translation of Child’s first book, Killing Floor, and it introduced Alan Ritchson as the ideal version of an on-screen Reacher. Big. Silent. Brutal. I’m anticipating Reacher Season 2 as much as everyone, but a single moment in the new trailer (above) told me that the people running Reacher know EXACTLY what they are doing, and this show is in the best hands possible.
As we already reported, Reacher Season 2 will be adapting the Lee Child book Bad Luck and Trouble. It’s the eleventh book in the Jack Reacher series, but an ideal choice for Reacher Season 2, because it moves the action from rural Georgia to Los Angeles, and leans heavily into Reacher’s history with the military. In the U.S. Army, Reacher led an elite team of special investigators. They were the best of the best, and closer than family members. So I legit got goosebumps when the trailer included a flashback of Reacher and his squad repeating a mantra that becomes VERY important to the story in Bad Luck and Trouble:
You do not mess with the Special Investigators.
In the story of Bad Luck and Trouble, however, someone does start to mess with the members of the Special Investigators. Two of them are murdered, in fact, and once Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) learns about it, he reassembles what’s left of his team to avenge the fallen, and put a stop to whomever is targeting his group.
Because we are familiar with the events of Bad Luck and Trouble, we have been tracking news regarding the film’s casting quite closely. We anticipated that Reacher Season 2 would bring back Frances Neagley, played in Reacher Season 1 by Maria Sten. Neagley is a member of Reacher’s former team, and is an important part of the mission in the story that will make up Reacher Season 2. Additionally, it was reported that Reacher Season 2 cast Shaun Sipos as another member of Reacher’s squad, David O’Donnell.
Aside from the casting, this new trailer for Reacher Season 2 just hits all the correct beats. Ritchson makes me believe it when he tells people he doesn’t hit softly. And the moment Reacher kicked a car so hard that he triggered the airbag, I cheered. Also, the new season pits Ritchson against legendary baddie Robert Patrick, best known from Terminator 2 but also a key part of James Gunn’s Peacemaker series. Bring on that confrontation!
The new season of Reacher begins to drop on December 15. It can’t get here soon enough.
