Reacher Star Alan Ritchson Played A Crucial Role In Casting One Important Character

"Reacher" became a huge hit for Prime Video when it debuted in 2022, breaking records on the streamer by topping the Nielsen streaming charts. When season 2 arrived, however, some fans felt let down by the fact the show jumped ahead in the original book series, introducing Jack Reacher's former 110th Special Investigations Unit before audiences had a real chance to learn more about the ex-military policeman on his own. Thankfully, season 3 of "Reacher" fixed the biggest problems with season 2, and much of that was down to star Alan Ritchson.

The 6-foot 3-inch, 235-pound Ritchson has been committed to giving fans the best version of Jack Reacher possible ever since he went through a grueling eight-month audition process that originally saw him overlooked in favor of another actor. After landing the role, Ritchson came to embody the giant man mountain of Lee Child's original book series in a way that Tom Cruise, who played the character in a pair of films released in 2012 and 2016, simply didn't. But for Ritchson, the fights in season 2 just weren't up to par, and the actor has spoken about pushing his team to do better in season 3.

That's just one example of how Ritchson is intimately involved in making "Reacher" the hit series that it is. Now, it seems the man is at least partly responsible for casting arguably the best villain of the entire show in Olivier Richters' Paul "Paulie" Van Hoven.

Olivier Richters appeared in season 3 of "Reacher" playing Paulie, a giant former soldier-turned henchman who somehow even makes Alan Ritchson look small. The massive Dutch bodybuilder was cast as the bodyguard for dodgy rug salesman Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall), but was really doing the bidding of arms trafficker and all-round bad guy Xavier Quinn (Brian Tee). Throughout season 3, fans eagerly awaited the long-teased showdown between Ritchson and Richters' characters. They finally got to witness that historic face-off in the "Reacher" season 3 finale, in which Reacher engages in a protracted fight with Paulie in what is easily the most brutal and toughest challenge the ex-military man has faced yet.

The only problem with such an unabashedly cool action sequence is that it now leaves the show with its own major challenge of topping this badassery. Whatever the series' writers come up with next, they certainly won't be bringing back Paulie, who's dispatched by Reacher at the end of their drawn-out brawl. But Richters doesn't seem to mind, as the disarmingly charming Dutchman has remained consistently grateful for the chance to appear in what it turns out is one of his favorite shows. In particular, he's grateful to Ritchson himself, who had a hand in his casting in the first place.

Speaking to ScreenRant, Richters revealed that the "Reacher" star had actually found him on Reddit of all places. "Somebody posted me," Richters explained, "and [Ritchson] asked casting, 'Hey, can you find out if this giant can act?'" The bodybuilder can indeed act and has actually appeared in quite a few movies and shows in his time, beginning with minor roles on series in the 1990s and early 2000s. His career really took off in 2018 following a small role in the horror-comedy "Ravers," which was followed by a part in "Black Widow." Since then, Richters has played Huge Machinery Shack Guard in "The King's Man," Hauke in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," and bandit leader Krom, a part that was ultimately cut from the biggest box office bomb of 2024, "Borderlands." By the time Ritchson found him, then, Richters had a solid footing in Hollywood. Still, it seems he didn't quite nail the audition the first time around.

After Alan Ritchson passed Olivier Richters' name to the "Reacher" casting agents, the bodybuilder was given two audition scenes to record. Prior to sending his tape, Richters recalled sending Ritchson an Instagram message, though he doesn't think the leading man ever actually read it. "I told him, 'Hey, I just heard that I have [an audition] for 'Reacher' and that it's thanks to you'," Richters recalled. "'I don't know if I'm going to get the part, but thank you so far.'"

At that point, however, the Dutchman hadn't secured the role of Paulie and was required to submit tapes of him acting out the gym scene in which he and Reacher arm wrestle, alongside the first meeting between Paulie and Reacher. As Richters remembered it:

"I uploaded those videos and they told me they can see that I'm Paulie, but I did the scene wrong. I did it very playfully, I wanted to make Reacher feel like a child, but they [wanted a] straight face. So then I gave them that tape and a few weeks later I heard, 'You got the part,' and I went nuts."

The bodybuilder explained how he had already watched "Reacher" season 1 and was halfway through season 2 at the time. As such, he was obviously excited to have a chance of appearing alongside Ritchson, with Richters adding, "It's very unrealistic that you're a fan of the show and then, a few months later, you're across [from] the main character you used to watch. Sometimes I say it feels like I live in the Matrix — you don't know what's real anymore."

So, it looks like Ritchson can claim responsibility for casting the greatest villain in "Reacher" history, once again reminding us that the actor himself is just as perfect for the show as Richters was for Paulie.