The third season of Reacher — with Alan Ritchson returning to play the titular character of the former US Army military policeman with formidable strength, intellect, and abilities — drops on Prime Video today. t2 chatted with Lee Child, the writer of the bestselling Jack Reacher series, on which the web show is based, over a video call to know more. Child also functions as an executive producer of the series, which drops the first three episodes today and subsequent episodes every Thursday till March 27.

Do the emotions hit differently every time there is a new season of Reacher? It is, after all, your work going out into the world season after season...

I love it because that really is the whole point of writing. You want it to go out into the world and you want as many people to know the story as possible. Television has a big, wide range and through it, we are getting millions of new people to know Reacher. From my point of view, that is a wonderful feeling.

But it is also such a strange feeling because when I first started, of course, only I knew about Reacher and then a small number of people knew and that gave way to a larger number of people. It just kept growing. I hope it takes over the entire world and also parts of Mars and stuff that we haven’t discovered yet! (Laughs)

But is it the same feeling as when the book of yours came out? A book is yours alone, while the TV show belongs to so many others as well...

I can’t do television myself and hence I do have to rely on a huge crew of people. We are very lucky that they are excellent professionals, very committed and they work very hard. It is inspiring just to watch them work. So, I am not surprised at how good the result is. With all that brainpower and energy working on it, it has to be good.

You did work on TV for a while, didn’t you?

I did. What fascinates me is how some of it is the same, but most of it is different. It is new. Streaming television, bingeing television is very different from what we used to do in the past. It requires a different kind of writing and a different kind of pacing. That is something I am not used to. The modern generation of people have invented that, and I rely on them to do it.

Lee Child

What do you think makes Persuader — the seventh book in the Jack Reacher series — potent material for the third season of Reacher?

In the first two seasons, we felt that we needed to introduce Reacher to the TV audience because we hoped — and it has been proven right — that there are lots of people who didn’t read the books, but are now watching the series. So they needed to understand who Reacher was. We felt that Seasons 1 and 2 together did that. It introduced him and the viewer knows who he is now. So in Season 3, we had the freedom to have one of the authentic lone-wolf Reacher stories where he is on his own, has no help, no support and is always in danger. We felt it was time to do that.

For that, we felt that Persuader was a great choice because it has a great opening. It has two great villains. It has a great location. So we thought: ‘Yeah, this is the one to do.’

Did you take feedback from the reception to the first two seasons and apply them to Season 3?

If it is about 10 people out of millions, then you don’t worry about it too much. But if there is a consistent feeling, then you do pay attention to it. We haven’t really had any negative feedback. It is really a question of just adjusting it a little bit to hit the spot. And basically, we do it the way we think it should be done. And if we do that with great confidence, then the viewer will like it.

How do you think that Reacher — the series as well as the character — has evolved with every season?

The fascinating thing, from my point of view, was that the first season was also the first book. In that book (Killing Floor), Reacher is kind of learning to be Reacher. He has just come out of the army. He is trying to figure out a new life. He is making his own way. He is learning it as he goes along. And, of course, Alan (Ritchson) was new to playing Reacher at that point. So while Reacher was learning to be Reacher, Alan was also learning to be Reacher. And I thought we saw that process really work out very well.

In Season 2, the audience knew who Reacher was. Alan was confident in the role and it had a different flavour. Season 3 has Alan at his best. He is just all alone and he does it so well.

What do you think makes Reacher stand out as a hero across your books, a film and now the TV series?

This is a character that has existed for a very long time. The idea that a mysterious stranger can show up and solve your problem for you, and then ride off into the sunset. This is a kind of character that has occurred in every culture, every country, every age, because we want that, we need that, we crave that. Wouldn’t it be great to have somebody show up and solve your problems? People dream about that. So, he is literally a character for the ages. There have been versions of Reacher in the past, there will be versions in the future. Who he is is incredibly central to our human desire.

We know that you came up with the name Reacher while out grocery shopping when you ‘reached’ out to pick up a can at the supermarket. Did you have any other names in mind for the character?

I am terrible with names! I had the character in my head but I didn’t know the name. And so that grocery store thing was very lucky for me. But I do not know what he would have been called if that had not happened.

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