Reacher Star Alan Ritchson Thinks The Show Should Bring Back Roscoe And Finlay [Exclusive]
In a pleasant surprise for "Reacher" fans, this year's "The Fall of the House of Usher" served as a reunion for season 1 stars Willa Fitzgerald and Malcolm Goodwin. The Mike Flanagan-created, Edgar Allan Poe-inspired Grand Guignol saw the two actors once again sharing the screen, this time as future enemies C. Auguste Dupin and Madeline Usher during the show's 1979-set flashbacks. The only downside? It was also a bittersweet reminder the duo wouldn't be returning for "Reacher" season 2.
Indeed, much of the pleasure of "Reacher" season 1 comes from watching the hunky super-sleuth vagabond Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) unravel a criminal conspiracy in the small town of Margrave, Georgia, with the help of Margrave's by-the-book Chief Detective Oscar Finlay (Goodwin) and spunky police officer Roscoe Conklin (Fitzgerald). Between Reacher and Finlay's oil-and-water dynamic and the mutual respect — and attraction — Reacher and Roscoe share for one another, the only thing better than the show's rip-roaring fights are the moments where its three leads interact in between, whether they're debating pop music genres or discussing their preferred vending machine snacks.
Unfortunately, Lee Child's original Jack Reacher novels are largely standalone, with very few supporting characters showing up in more than a single installment. With the series adapting a different book each season, that means "Reacher" is similarly closer to an anthology in its design than a show with an overarching progressing narrative. Case in point: Season 2 will adapt Child's 11th Reacher novel "Bad Luck and Trouble," a story that has nothing to do with all that trouble down in Margrave.
Nevertheless, Ritchson is fully onboard with bringing Finlay and Roscue back into the fray at some point — as he told /Film's Jacob Hall during a press day for "Reacher" season 2.
Expanding the Lee Child universe
For as much as "Reacher" prides itself on being faithful to Lee Child's source material (especially compared to Tom Cruise's "Jack Reacher" films), Ritchson isn't so much of a purist that he's against breaking canon and bringing back Roscoe and Finlay. As he told Hall:
"I would for sure. I would be a huge fan of that. I think we should. I think we should at some point. They were just too good. We're building a world here, and although this is an anthology, to be able to remind the audience that this is a real journey that he's taken and there are some people that are still there, I think could be a lot of fun. Yeah, I hope we can do that at some point."
That's not to suggest anything goes so far as Ritchson is concerned. When asked if he sees "Reacher" as a "parallel world" to the books, the actor said he doesn't, stating, "I think that we are being very authentic to the books." He added that the show only strays from the novels "with a really heavy heart" for a specific storytelling purpose, like "to expand on things like secondary characters that weren't really focused on in the book enough to give us a series' worth of content."
Ritchson's comments echo what showrunner Nick Santora previously said on the matter about not forcing in familiar characters or doing anything that "messes up the lore of 'Reacher.'" On the other hand, considering how openly devastated Child was about Roscoe's storyline being done after season 1, it seems there won't be any objections from him, should the show find an organic excuse to catch up with her and Finlay down the road.
"Reacher" season 2 premieres December 15, 2023, on Prime Video.