This past weekend has offered a first look at the upcoming third season of the hit Prime Video show Reacher, based on the book series by Lee Child and starring Alan Ritchson in the title role, and while the series has been very good, if not always great at times, this new teaser proves that this upcoming season could be very well be, in Ritchson’s own words, “by far the best season we’ve ever made.”
A big reason for this comes down to who Reacher will be up against this time around. One of the most compelling aspects of Reacher as a character is that, despite his eye-catching size, he is also highly intelligent, and while he has no qualms about using brutal violence, there is often a cerebral undercurrent to its surgical execution. Whenever the hulking Reacher finds himself at a disadvantage, it’s seemingly always situational and rarely, if ever, physical. However, Reacher season 3 deliberately strives to challenge this aspect of his character with the villainous henchman Paulie, played by 7’2” Dutch actor and bodybuilder Olivier Richters, who, for obvious reasons, is nicknamed “The Dutch Giant”.
The 40-second teaser trailer offers relatively little insight into the upcoming season as a whole otherwise, though what we do know from the Lee Child book on which it is based, Persuader, is that Reacher infiltrates a suspected drug smuggling ring fronting as an oriental carpet company that is run by Zachary Beck, who will be played by legendary Brat Pack member Anthony Michael Hall, though he was not seen in the teaser. Instead, it wisely focuses on the greatest physical test for Reacher yet, Richter’s Paulie, with our hero candidly informing longtime ally Frances Neagly (Maria Sten) in a voiceover that he is “twice my size”. During this moment, Reacher punches Paulie in the stomach, to no avail whatsoever, and is then punched to the ground so hard it that clearly rocks the generally unflappable former military police major in a way that is wholly unfamiliar to him.
We are otherwise treated to a montage of action sequences that promise what look to be some of the most intense set pieces in the series yet, and Reacher is still confidently beating on grunts despite being stifled by an uncharacteristically enormous human being, even by his own standards.
What’s more, we also learned that the latest season of Reacher will release on February 20th, with the first three episodes coming out simultaneously on this date, while the remaining five episodes will be dropped week-to-week. Personally, I very much appreciate this initial batch of episodes, as the most difficult wait in any season of television tends to be between the first and second episodes.
Additional newcomers this season include Sonya Cassidy, Brian Tee, Johnny Berchtold, Robert Montesinos and Daniel David Stewart, though of course the spotlight will very much be on Olivier Richter.