'Reacher' Season 3: Everything To Know (Dec. 2024 Update)

Prime Video/Amazon’s Reacher series has kept the spirit of Lee Child’s protagonist intact, although a few key changes have been made for the TV medium. Those include making the Big Guy more than a Lone Wolf by having a stabilizing character appear each season amid his fluctuating locations. That character would be Neagley (Maria Sten), who will receive their own spin off one of these days. First, however, Reacher his back for his third season, which means that he’s officially bypassed Tom Cruise as the Big Guy.

Amazon has already renewed this bone-crunching fest for a fourth season, but let’s talk about what to expect after Reacher gets off that bus and lands in what was a mystery location going into the third season.

Plot

Reacher has gleefully been ducking back and forth in Lee Child’s bookshelf rather than adapt books consecutively. That keeps people guessing, and Alan Ritchson is already pulling legs on Instagram by threatening to “spill the beans” on the fourth season’s book. We do know, however, that the third season is based upon the Persuader novel, which will take place in Maine, where the show largely shot on location with crusty seafood on the menu. Reacher will also have an “undercover” mission, and good luck with a disguise.

Reacher will be somewhat out of his element because a towering antagonist will knock the daylights out of him. That would be Paul “Paulie” Masserella, embodied by Oliver Ritchers, who goes IRL by “The Dutch Giant” nickname. He is 7’2″ and makes cars look tiny, and in the below teaser trailer, Paulie smacks 6’5″ Reacher around and is “twice as big” as the Big Guy.

Ritchers has been onboard with looking forward to beating the hell out Reacher and also villainous set vandalism since his casting was announced, and poor Reacher probably won’t even be able to get some pie during this rivalry, but don’t worry: Reacher might go to Key West if Amazon ever adapts the Tripwire novel, which means that he will have Key Lime Pie.

Ritchson recently surfaced at Brazil’s CCXP extravaganza, where Collider reported that he calls the third season “peak TV.” For real:

“Things get pretty dangerous. Things get – and I mean this, I would never lead you astray – there’s been a little tiny something in each season where I’ve been like, ‘I wish we could do that better.’ Season 3 is by far the best season we’ve ever made. Start to finish, this is high octane action, this is peak TV and I cannot wait for everyone to watch this. […] I don’t want to ruin it for you. In Persuader, Reacher has to go undercover, and he’s gotta do some heavy lifting, both to stay alive and to find someone he’s looking for … But he also comes across his most formidable foe yet, in Paulie. Paulie is someone who makes Reacher look absolutely tiny.”

Seeing Reacher potentially look scared will be worth the price of admission. In the Persuader book, Reacher related that Paulie “looked like a cartoon,” had “arms… bigger than my legs,” and gave him “that core shudder.” Our hero also reckons that “[h] must have been gobbling steroids like candy for years,” and “[h]is eyes were dull and his skin was bad.” Fingers crossed that Neagley will close the laptop and rescue her friend. Sure, Neagley doesn’t surface in the Persuader novel, but the character does pop up in the above teaser trailer.

Cast

Ritchson and Ritchers are already covered. Further antagonism will be served by Anthony Michael Hall as Zachary Beck, who Deadline describes as “a formidable and successful businessman” but you know he will be shady as hell. And of course Reacher has a new love interest onboard, which is where Sonya Cassidy will come in as Susan Duffy, a DEA agent from Boston.

The connecting thread between seasons remains Maria Sten as Neagley. She might carry a rocket launcher but she will definitely eat cereal.