Alan Ritchson, star of Prime Video’s “Reacher,” says a season adapted from his favorite Lee Child novel had been approved before “someone got re-elected,” a remark widely read as a reference to President Donald Trump.
Ritchson made the comment on Threads, replying to a fan who lamented that the series keeps passing over “Die Trying,” the 1998 novel in which Jack Reacher takes on a white supremacist militia. The fan guessed producers avoid the early books because they stand less comfortably on their own. Ritchson called it his favorite and wrote: “I had it approved until someone got re-elected.”
He gave no details about who approved the season, what changed or how an election played a part. Trump won a second term in 2024. No public response from Amazon MGM Studios had surfaced by Sunday.
In the novel, Reacher and an FBI agent are kidnapped on a Chicago street and driven to a heavily armed militia compound in Montana. The show has jumped around Child’s catalog since adapting “Killing Floor” in season one. Season four, based on “Gone Tomorrow,” premiered Aug. 12 and ended this month. Season five, renewed in May and already filming, will adapt “Make Me.” A spin-off, “Neagley,” starring Maria Sten, debuted the same day as the finale.
Ritchson has spoken freely about politics. In July, on Josh Horowitz’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, he demanded the release of the Epstein files and, without naming Trump, said “go to jail.” He rejected the loose-cannon label, arguing he says only what anyone who cares about humanity should say.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson answered in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. She said Trump has been “totally exonerated” on anything relating to Epstein and cited his release of documents, his cooperation with a House Oversight subpoena and his signature on the Epstein Files Transparency Act. No court has exonerated him. Trump has denied wrongdoing, and the Justice Department has said the files contain untrue claims against him.
