Alan Ritchson Confirms Why Reacher Skipped His Favorite Lee Child Book Despite Approval

Published Sep 19, 2026, 8:35 AM EDT Hannah Gearan (she/her) is has been writing for ScreenRant for over three years. Her deep cinema love traces back to age 11, when she equipped herself with a spiral-bound notebook, rated all the films she watched, and declared herself a critic. About a decade later, she received a BA from Wesleyan University, where she studied Film, Environmental Studies, and Writing. Hannah’s short film, Toxic Faucets, has screened at numerous film festivals, including the Independent Film Festival of Boston (IFFBoston). As a Movie News writer now, she draws upon her vast experience studying, making, and analyzing film as she approaches dynamic breaking stories. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Alan Ritchson may have had a great idea for which novel to adapt for Reacher, but something got in the way. Reacher is based off of Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, which began in 1997. While the first season does adapt the debut novel, Killing Floor, the subsequent seasons of Reacher proceed to jump around, adapting the novels out of their original release order. This is made possible because the novels are standalone stories, carrying over the same protagonist but still self-contained enough to understand without the preceding books' immediate context. Responding to a post on Threads, Reacher star Alan Ritchson reveals which book was skipped over for an adaptation. A user wrote the following: Every season of Reacher so far has been great, and I understand that they may be avoiding the earlier novels due to their slightly less standalone nature, but every year I'm sad to learn that next season won't be the book where he kills his way through a white supremacist militia camp. Ritchson did have a reasoning for why Prime Video did not adapt this "white supremacist militia camp" book. Put bluntly, Ritchson replied, "My favorite book. Fun fact: I had it approved until someone got re-elected." The book in question is Die Trying. Published in 1998, this is the second novel in Child's series. The book is set in the United States, taking place primarily in Chicago and also at the militia compound described by the Threads user. Said compound is in a more remote area called Yorke, Montana. This is not the first time that Ritchson has praised Die Trying publicly, backing up his claim about its alleged would-be adaptation. In a 2022 interview with Empire, as the show's first season premiered, Ritchson said that he would love to see Child's sophomore novel adapted for the screen. This led to a lot of speculation that Amazon would proceed to adapt the initial novels in order, following up a successful season 1 with Die Trying. Reacher eventually went in a different direction with season 2 and chose to adapt book 11, Bad Luck and Trouble. There was still speculation that book 2 might be revisited by the time the third season rolled around. Now, Ritchson's reveal confirms that the timing of this nixed approval was not mere coincidence. Rather, the Reacher television adaptation was put in an interesting spot in terms of how it coincided with American politics. The first two seasons of the show were released during President Joe Biden's presidency. There was an election year between seasons 2 and 3, and since then, the latter seasons of Reacher have all been during Donald Trump's second term as president. Ritchson's statement suggests that the studio may have felt there were too many parallels between Die Trying and issues pertaining to the America that exists under the current sitting president. With Reacher season 4 having recently wrapped up and season 5 coming sometime later in 2027, it is possible that a potential season 6 or beyond could revisit Die Trying, especially given the possibility that a new election cycle will begin in 2028. Release Date February 3, 2022 Network Prime Video Showrunner Nick Santora Cast Maria Sten Frances Neagley Without a phone and traveling light, former military police officer Jack Reacher drifts between American towns, embroiling himself in local crimes and bringing justice in his wake. Based on the series of novels by Lee Child, Reacher's journey offers him an intimate understanding of the nation he once served.