Alan Ritchson’s ‘Reacher’ Could Break Its Biggest Formula Rule in Season 6
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Reacher‘s winning formula comes from its adherence to Lee Child‘s novels. Most of those novels follow former soldier Jack Reacher as he wanders from place to place, often getting embroiled in conflicts that call on his unique skills. Reacher embraces this storytelling style wholeheartedly, and it doesn’t hurt that Alan Ritchsonis more or less perfectly cast as Reacher. Reacher was recently greenlit for two more seasons, and with that greenlight comes new information that could radically shake up the series for the better.
Lee Child previously revealed to Collider that Reacher Season 5 will adapt Make Me, which sees Reacher traveling to the town of Mother’s Rest and helping private investigator Michelle Chang on a missing persons case. The duo stumbles into a conspiracy so dark that Child is wondering whether Prime Video will dive into the “disturbing” depths of Make Me‘s story. Make Me is also a surprising choice for an adaptation because it gives Reacher Season 6 a chance to adapt the novel The Midnight Line. In the process, it would break the series’ standalone format, but deliver a richer story as a trade-off.
‘The Midnight Line’ Is Unlike Any Jack Reacher Novel — And That Makes It Great
Reacher staring at someone in a bar.Image via Prime Video
The Midnight Line picks up immediately after Make Me, as Reacher leaves Mother’s Rest and heads to Wisconsin, where he stumbles upon a West Point ring while browsing a pawn shop. Reacher buys the ring and learns that its previous owner, Arthur Scorpio, runs a criminal empire. Naturally, Reacher starts dismantling Scorpio’s operation with extreme prejudice, but what sets The Midnight Line apart from other Jack Reacher novelsis the emotional undercurrent running through the story. When Reacher finally encounters the true owner of the West Point ring, he learns that she’s a former veteran struggling with opioid use after a life-changing injury. He also stops a DEA agent from investigating her and even gives advice in true Reacher form.
“Deal with it,” Reacher said. “It happened. It can’t un-happen. Most folks aren’t going to like it. Deep down humans haven’t been modern very long. But some won’t care. You’ll find them.”
If Reacher adapts The Midnight Line, it won’t just break its tradition of standalone stories; it’ll give fans a Jack Reacher story that’s very different from what they are used to. That’s a massive gamble for such a popular series, but it wouldn’t be the first time a Prime Video series changed its storytelling approach. If Invinciblecan shift from a subversive superhero story to a full-blown sci-fi saga, then Reacher definitely has the juice to deliver a story that hits just as hard emotionally as it does physically. If Reacher Season 5 leans into the nastier aspects of Make Me, Season 6 could provide a much-needed breather by adapting The Firing Line.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
🎭Ethan Hunt
01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
‘Reacher’ Season 6 Could Let Alan Ritchson Flex His Dramatic Chops
By adapting The Midnight Line, Reacher also has a chance to let Alan Ritchson display a wider range of emotions. Over four seasons, he’s faced multiple dangers while keeping an unwavering poker face. The Midnight Line could shake that up by showing him connecting with another person, particularly a former soldier; since he rarely makes those kinds of connections in his adventures, it’s a chance for the series to dig deeper into what drives him. Ritchson recently proved he can pull off dramatic material in Netflix’s hit sci-fi thriller War Machine, so getting the chance to show off thosechops in his most iconic role would be a breath of fresh air for Reacher’s structure.
Reacher has lasted as long as it has because of its meat-and-potatoes storytelling, but adapting The Midnight Line could be the shake-up the series needs.The novel has a depth that could fuel future seasons and set the series up to end on a high note, as Lee Child hints that Reacher’s nomadic ways may be coming to an end.
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