Alan Ritchson has revealed that fans almost got a very different season of ‘Reacher’. The actor, who plays Jack Reacher in the hit action series, recently shared that his favourite Lee Child book was once approved to become a season of the show. That book is ‘Die Trying’, Child’s 1998 novel and the second entry in the Reacher series. But somewhere along the way, the plan was scrapped.Ritchson shared the detail after a fan on social media brought up ‘Die Trying’ and its storyline involving Reacher taking on a white supremacist militia. The fan said they were disappointed that the book still had not been adapted. Ritchson’s response was brief, but it certainly got people talking.“My favorite book,” he wrote on Threads. “Fun fact: I had it approved until someone got re-elected.” He did not name Donald Trump in the post. However, several outlets, including Deadline, connected the comment to Trump’s 2024 reelection. ComingSoon also reported on the exchange and identified ‘Die Trying’ as the book Ritchson was referring to.The comment is also the latest in a series of public political remarks from Ritchson. Earlier this year, the actor made comments about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein that drew a response from the White House, something Deadline also reported.
What is ‘Die Trying’ about?
For fans who have been waiting for ‘Die Trying’ to make its way onto the screen, the story is quite a bit darker than some of the other Reacher adventures. The book begins with Reacher helping a woman in Chicago. Things take a turn when the two are kidnapped and taken to a remote militia compound. The woman turns out to be Holly Johnson, the daughter of a powerful U.S. military official, making her much more than just a random kidnapping victim.The people holding them hostage have much bigger plans. They are part of a radical militia movement that wants to break away from the United States, and Holly becomes a valuable bargaining chip. Reacher, naturally, is not going to sit around and let that happen.The story eventually takes him deep into the militia’s world, where he has to figure out how to get Holly out while dealing with a group that is becoming increasingly dangerous.It is also the kind of story that would have given Ritchson plenty to work with as Reacher. His comment calling ‘Die Trying’ his favourite book makes it pretty clear that this was not just another title being considered for the series.
Why wasn’t ‘Die Trying’ made into a season of ‘Reacher’?
This is where things get interesting. According to Ritchson himself, the season had already been approved before the plans changed. His wording was simply that it was approved “until someone got re-elected.”He did not provide more details about who made the decision, when exactly the plans changed or what happened behind the scenes. So the connection between the election and the scrapped storyline comes from Ritchson’s own comment rather than an official explanation from the show’s studio.That distinction is worth keeping in mind, especially since neither Ritchson nor the studio has publicly provided a detailed account of why the proposed season was dropped. For fans, though, the revelation has raised a pretty obvious question: could ‘Die Trying’ ever return as a possible ‘Reacher’ season? There is no indication that it will.
What is happening with ‘Reacher’ Season 5?
While ‘Die Trying’ is sitting on the sidelines, the ‘Reacher’ series itself is moving ahead. Season 5 has already been renewed and will adapt another Lee Child novel, ‘Make Me’. The book, published in 2015, takes Reacher to the fictional Midwestern town of Mother’s Rest.Reacher arrives there after getting off a train and soon finds himself involved in the search for a missing private investigator. He teams up with Michelle Chang, and what initially looks like a missing-person case turns into something much bigger. So fans will get another Reacher story, just not the one Ritchson apparently wanted most.For now, ‘Die Trying’ remains one of the books that the series has yet to tackle. And considering Ritchson has now revealed that it once came close to becoming a season, fans are likely to keep asking about it whenever the future of ‘Reacher’ comes up.
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