Alan Ritchson Knows Exactly What Went Wrong With Reacher Season 2

When it comes to the success of "Reacher," which has broken Prime Video streaming records with its third season, we can point to the pulpy fun of the whole thing and star Alan Ritchson being the most book-accurate version of the lead character yet. But really, we all come to "Reacher" for the simple pleasure of watching a large man punch a lot of people really hard. Since the very first season of "Reacher," which featured some incredible fight scenes, the show has prided itself on presenting some of the most brutal combat yet to appear in a premium drama. The 6-foot 3-inch Ritchson is every bit the hulking ex-Army man of the books and puts his physical prowess to brutal use throughout the series' three seasons, dispatching entire gangs of enemies with relative ease.

For some, however, "Reacher" season 2 was a bit of a step down from the wildly successful first season. In the second run of episodes, Reacher was surrounded by his former Army unit, the 110th Special Investigators, and many saw this as "Reacher" jumping too far ahead in Lee Child's original book series before viewers really had a chance to get to know the central character well enough. Those same viewers were likely pleased to see that "Reacher" season 3 fixed the problems of season 2, putting Ritchson's hero back on a solo mission as he tries to get to the bottom of a rug business' dodgy dealings.

For Ritchson himself, however, there were more problems with season 2 than jumping too far ahead in the books. The star seemingly had some major issues with the fight scenes in season 2, and it seems he made a point of fixing them for season 3.

Season 2 of "Reacher" was just as packed with action as the first season. It depicted the titular ex-military policeman facing off against rival Army soldiers, terrorists, and Robert Patrick's big villan Shane Langston, even sneaking in a clear homage to a James Cameron classic that featured Patrick in a similarly villainous role. For whatever reason, however, Alan Ritchson felt the fight scenes in season 2 weren't quite as good as they could have been.

In an interview with The Movie Podcast, the star spoke about rewatching the series after shooting and revealed that he sometimes sees "things that audiences will probably agree could be better." When Ritchson rewatched season 2, he was particularly dismayed with the combat, which he claims should have been much better than it was. In his own words:

"Season 2, I wasn't really thrilled with a lot of the action at all. I was really upset with the way some of those fights were executed. We didn't do a good job on the day. We weren't using the right tools. It wasn't cut very well."

It's somewhat surprising to hear Ritchson talk about season 2 this way. The show maintained its brutal, over-the-top approach to the combat, with Reacher at one point using a trowel to violently dispatch an adversary on a building site. Still, it seems that wasn't enough for Ritchson, who evidently went into season 3 intent upon delivering improved fight scenes.

Alan Ritchson came to define the on-screen version of Jack Reacher after Tom Cruise failed to live up to fan expectations with his two Jack Reacher movies. The bulky actor embodies the equally muscular hero of Lee Child's books, and it helps that Ritchson himself is a fan of those novels, with the star speaking openly about his love for the literary Jack Reacher. Not only does Ritchson take his role as Reacher seriously, Child himself loves the actor in the role.

As such, it seems Ritchson is intensely dedicated to delivering the best possible version of his TV series he can, and going into season 3 he was intent upon giving audiences the best fight scenes he possibly could. In his Movie Podcast interview, the actor noted:

"One of my big things going into [season 3] was, I sat everybody down, my creative team and boots on the ground, I was like, 'We have to do better.' I needed new tools to do that and so I got Amazon to approve some new tools that allow us to really get close and intimate with the fight."

Ritchson went on to explain how he limited the amount of cameras used for fight scenes so that editors would have less choices when it came to cuts, and designed the fight scenes to be "a ballet with the camera." Evidently, this approach worked as far as Ritchson is concerned, with the actor saying, "I think it's so good this year, I'm so proud of what we caught and we really found a language for the show." No doubt the absolute pinnacle of this combat ballet will be Reacher's eventual showdown with season 3's hulking henchman Paulie, played by the 7-foot 2-inch Dutch bodybuilder Olivier Richters. While I'm not sure the fight scenes in season 2 were as bad as Ritchson seems to think, it's always good to know that he and the production team are trying to improve on what they've done previously. It just means that once the face-off with Paulie is out of the way, they'll have to figure out how to give us something even more spectacular.

"Reaching" is currently streaming on Prime Video.