When Amazon Studios acquired the rights to develop a series based on the bestselling novel franchise centered around the wandering do-gooder Jack Reacher, they had plenty of content to pull from.
Amazon’s “Reacher” reboots the franchise with Alan Ritchson taking on the role of Jack Reacher. With 26 novels to choose from, the team behind the series had to decide where to start.
Showrunners chose to base the first season of “Reacher” on Lee Child’s debut novel, “Killing Floor,” while the second season is based on “Bad Luck and Trouble.”
1. Which book series is Season 1 based on?
Where could be a better place to jumpstart a franchise than at the beginning? That is was why the Showmakers started with the novel, “Killing Floor.”
The novel was a massive success upon release, winning multiple awards, including the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. In their review, Publisher’s Weekly called it a “taut and tough-minded first novel” and said, “Child writes with a hand as strong and steady as steel.”
When Jack Reacher, a wandering ex-military police officer with no home and no possessions, gets off a bus in Margrave, GA, he is immediately arrested for murder.
Once the police release him after deducing that he’s not the killer, he is on his way out of town until he finds out one of the victims was his big brother. Teaming up with an uptight detective and a tough-as-nails local cop, Reacher walks the line between vengeance and justice as he searches for the killers.
2. Which book series is Season 2 based on?
Jack Reacher is a character from a long-running novel series, and Reacher Season 2 is inspired by its eleventh book, “Bad Luck and Trouble,” by Lee Child.
As mentioned, Prime Video’s Jack Reacher comes straight from British author Lee Child’s 18-book novel series. Before Season 2, we’ve seen three other adaptations of Jack Reacher in the live-action space.
First, Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher (2012) was inspired by “One Shot,” the ninth novel. Following that, its sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016), took the title of the eighteenth and final novel, “Never Go Back.”
The official synopsis of the book “Bad Luck and Trouble” states:
“From a helicopter high above the empty California desert, a man is sent free-falling into the night. In Chicago, a woman learns that an elite team of ex–army investigators is being hunted down individually.
And on the streets of Portland, Jack Reacher, a soldier, cop, and hero, is pulled out of his wandering life by a code few others can understand. From the first shocking scenes in Lee Child’s explosive new novel, Jack Reacher is plunged like a knife into the heart of a conspiracy that is killing old friends and is on its way to something even worse.”
With at least 14 more books available to adapt, Prime Video could renew multiple seasons of Reacher beyond Season 2.
3. About Reacher
Developed by Nick Santora, Amazon Prime’s Reacher is an American action crime streaming television series based on the books of Lee Child.
Starring Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher the show revolves around a murder investigation in the small town of Margrave, Georgia. When Jack Reacher is arrested for a murder he did not commit, he finds himself in the middle of a deadly conspiracy full of dirty cops, shady businessmen, and scheming politicians. He needs to figure out what’s happening using his wits and escape out of this embroilment.
The show has been renewed for a second season and will premiere on December 14, 2023.
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