Why Alan Ritchson Left Titans

It's hard to imagine a time when Alan Ritchson wasn't portraying the hulk of a man known as Jack Reacher in Prime Video's record breaking series "Reacher." The 6-foot 3-inch 235-pound Ritchson seems to have been born to play the giant former military policeman, and since debuting in the role in 2022, he's given fans of Lee Child's novel series, on which the show is based, a book-accurate Jack Reacher that lives up to all expectations.

But it took Ritchson a little while to find the role that has come to define his career thus far. During filming on "Reacher," the show's cast pranked him with an embarrassing part of his past by showing his "American Idol" audition from way back in 2004, proving that even bulky badasses were once just awkward kids. Ritchson did indeed start out as a model with aspirations of becoming a singer before he moved into acting, debuting in 2005 as Arthur Curry aka Aquaman on the CW series "Smallville."

The time between his run on that cult hit series and "Reacher" saw Ritchson play a number of TV and film roles with varying success. After being promised an Aquaman spin-off only to be snubbed for the pilot, Ritchson went on to display a remarkable staying power, working consistently right up until his casting on "Reacher." He even returned to the small-screen DC universe in 2018 when he took on the role of Hank Hall aka Hawk in "Titans." The show debuted on the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service DC Universe before moving to HBO Max, and Ritchson remained a part of the cast for the first three of the series' four seasons.

In many ways, "Titans" was a warm-up for the busy TV schedule Ritchson would soon experience with "Reacher," as the star departed the series in 2021 just one year before his hugely-successful Prime Video show debuted. Was it "Reacher" that actually caused the actor to leave his DC Comics series? Allow us to explain.

"Titans" debuted on DC Universe back in 2018, depicting the adventures of the Teen Titans superhero team. De facto leader Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites) was flanked by an array of heroes throughout the series' run, with Alan Ritchson's Hank Hall starting out as a recurring character before becoming a central player in the second and third season of the show. Hank was one half of a vigilante duo which also included his girlfriend, Minka Kelly's Dawn Granger aka Dove. But in season 3, Hank leaves his fellow heroes behind, departing in the episode titled "Souls." The character had previously been killed off by Jason Todd aka Red Hood (Curran Walters) in the season's third episode after a bomb strapped to his chest detonated. But in "Souls," we saw him reunite with his brother, Don, in the afterlife, with the two reforming as Hank and Dove.

With Ritchson already signed on for "Reacher" (after Amazon went back and forth on the idea), it would seem as though the timing was perfect for the actor to exit "Titans." However, it turns out it wasn't actually Ritchson's decision to move on — though he's glad things worked out the way they did.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly around the time of his "Titans" departure, Ritchson explained how he was "ready to move on and try something else and enter a more mature phase of life" after being told he would be leaving the DC series. "Strangely, I ran into it immediately in Jack Reacher, this next role," he explained, "but no, I was surprised by the call." Clearly, then, it wasn't Ritchson's decision to write Hank Hall out of "Titans," with the actor adding, "The decision was made for me, and it was for the best."

Elaborating on his fondness for "Titans," Alan Ritchson explained to EW how his shooting schedule and workload matched up perfectly with his personal life. "I was content with the show," he said, adding:

"I really enjoyed the character, and I enjoyed the schedule. I have three young kids and a wife, and I want to see them grow up, and I'm always caught between this really difficult position of how much do I invest in my career versus how much do I invest in my family at home. I was on a show where I could come in, shoot a few days a week, and that's my contribution to that episode, and then I would fly to see my family. It's a luxury that I didn't take for granted because I've been the lead of a show before, and it's all consuming, and you have no life."

Ritchson even claimed that he "would've stayed for 50 seasons" had he not been written out of "Titans," but considering how committed he's since proven himself to be to "Reacher" and the movie roles that have emerged in the wake of that show's success, it seems unlikely he would've had the time for such a commitment. Not that he'd be able to return anyway, as "Titans," alongside "Doom Patrol," was canceled after its fourth season.

As to why his character was chosen to be written out of the show, Ritchson commented on the general approach to season 3 of "Titans," saying "the storylines have been focused, the cast has been tightened and slimmed down, and we're now getting the best of what Titans can do." He continued:

"You want to keep people invested in the characters you love most, in the storylines you love most, and it's really gone that way. And I know HBO really encouraged that as the show evolved from [airing on] DC Universe to HBO Max. And I think it's really for the best."

It seems the HBO Max execs were eager to slim down the cast for the third season, and RItchson just happened to be one of the casualties of the show's streamlining. Not that he necessarily needs to worry about any of this now, as the response to "Reacher" season 3 has proven the show is as unstoppable as Ritchson himself.