Why Reacher Season 2 Jumped So Far Ahead In The Books
Following "Reacher" season 1, which set Prime Video viewing records back in 2022, wasn't going to be easy. But the second season of the show was just as sharp and self-aware as its predecessor, while also managing to feel a whole lot bigger. Most of that was because the production wasn't hindered by pandemic-imposed restrictions this time around. But the book on which it was based, "Bad Luck and Trouble," was also an arguably more epic tale than "Killing Floor," the novel used as the basis for season 1.
All in all, author Lee Child has written 28 Jack Reacher books in 26 years, plus a short story collection and a guide to the world of Reacher called "Rules." "Killing Floor" is the first novel in the run, but due to the plethora of source material, "Reacher" showrunner Nick Santora was able to pretty much pick any of the books he liked for season 2. Which is exactly what he did, skipping a whole ten novels and adapting "Bad Luck and Trouble" for season 2.
The story sees Reacher investigate the deaths of some of his former Army special investigations unit members. Rather than being confined to small-town Georgia for this adventure, Alan Ritchson's Reacher could be seen causing untold mayhem across New York City and Atlantic City, with a quick trip to Boston thrown in along the way. All of this made for a much more engaging and large-scale season of TV than "Reacher" season 1. But there was more to Santora and co.'s decision to skip ahead in the books than simply trying to go bigger.
Lee Child says there was no reason to adapt the books in order
Lee Child himself has been heavily involved in all Jack Reacher's on-screen exploits. He was executive producer on the two Tom Cruise-led films from 2012 and 2016, and he was right there to shepherd his ex-military police officer character into the streaming age after fans decided Cruise's relatively small stature just wasn't cutting it. Child once again serves as an executive producer on "Reacher," and as such has been on-hand to help steer this small-screen iteration of the work he created. That means he was not only present for much of the decision-making regarding season 2, but he was involved in the discussions themselves. Speaking to Empire magazine, the author revealed that he and the production team had "massive discussions" about which book to adapt for the second season, concluding that "there was no reason to do them in order." He continued
"The thinking went like this: 'Killing Floor' introduces Reacher as a person. So, which book shows his professional life, and what he did while he was in the Army? The result was 'Bad Luck And Trouble.' That's the thing with Hollywood people; they talk a lot, but they make sense in the end."
You can't really argue with the logic here, either. Adapting "Bad Luck and Trouble" allowed the writers to delve into Reacher's military past much more thoroughly than in season 1, literally showing (via flashback) what he did day-to-day as the leader of the Special Investigators. Now that season 2 has wrapped up with an explosive finale, I think it's fair to say fans of this streaming iteration of Reacher have a much more well-rounded understanding of Alan Ritchson's hulking protagonist.
Where will Reacher go next?
There's no doubt the Jack Reacher novels lend themselves to TV. The longer runtimes simply allow for more of the novels' details to be included, which is the main reason Alan Ritchson thought Reacher needed TV, and not films. But he's not the only one. Speaking to Empire about how the first season of "Reacher" adapted "Killing Floor" so faithfully, Lee Child said, "That's really a direct result of the luxury of that running time." The author went on to talk about how that first season utilized the character of Francis Neagley (played by Maria Sten in the show) to pad out the long, drawn-out scenes from the novel in which Reacher thinks through various scenarios:
"Reacher thinks a lot, and there are pages and pages of Reacher puzzling things out. You can't write an eight-minute scene with Alan Ritchson sitting there, thinking. So we needed a secondary character to bolster the exposition."
Neagley doesn't appear in the novel, "Killing Floor" but played a significant part in the first season before returning as a central character for season 2. Now, of course, with season 2 once again proving a hit, Child, Nick Santora, and the team will once again be faced with deciding which of the 28 books to adapt next. If Ritchson had his way, the writers would tackle the second book, "Die Trying," because as he told /Film it has "so many of the attributes that I think both translate well to film and that I would just have a lot of fun bringing to life." "Die Trying" might get adapted eventually, but as for season 3, the book being adapted is titled "Persuader."