Image Source: Orgoglio Nerd

If you like reading thriller books, you have definitely come across the Reacher series by Lee Child, Andrew Child, and Andrew Grant. The series follows after a police investigator Jack Reacher who unfortunately comes across a city that is facing an increasing number of murders. 

Beginning with how the Reacher became into a TV series, the showrunner, Nick Santora shared with Collider, "I was aware of the Reacher book series and had read Reacher books because who hasn’t? It was a matter of the studio owning the rights to the series and looking for someone to do it, and I’d be crazy to not throw my hat in the ring and try to land the job."

Explaining how he got the chance to create the series, he explained. "Like any actor auditions for a role, I auditioned for the role. I had a bunch of meetings and had to keep going back because obviously, it’s an important title to the studio. Luckily, they picked me."

While it is easy to imagine what an actor would be required to do during an audition, it is not much clear about what writers or producers need to show their worth when acquiring a series. "The process is different every time, whenever you try to land a job. This process was pretty painless," Santora explained. "All the credit for that goes to Skydance. The producer on the project, Don Granger, was an incredible gentleman and very supportive of me for this job. And Dana Goldberg at Skydance was really wonderful. Everyone there was really wonderful. I just kept going back, and every time I went back, we seemed to click a little bit more and a little bit more."

In the end, he was able to get the rights to the book. "And then, they finally said, “All right, figure out how to tell this book in this season of television because we’re gonna go try to sell it.” Then, the real hard work started."

Sharing what made him feel connected to the series, the writer said that it is the approach of the Reacher to "clothing." Explaining what he meant by it, he said, "I just never, in my life, have cared what I wore. I’m very, very, very into efficiency. It’s almost a challenge for me. And Reacher’s very efficient with words. He doesn’t talk unless it’s necessary. He’s very efficient in his approach to life."

Adding how he related that to the approach with clothes, he continued, "I have these clothes and I’ll wear them for three days. I’ll go to a thrift shop to get more clothes. I’ve been buying my t-shirts from thrift shops for decades. I just really connected with Reacher’s approach to having a simple life."

Another aspect that drew Santora to the series is how Reacher always tries to bring good into the world and always tries to help those who are in need. Though the producer admitted that he is not necessarily someone who would go and try to break up a fight, he admires people who have the courage to do so. 

As Santora previously mentioned, Reacher is a man of few words, and it was difficult to portray him as the main character for someone who speaks so little. "So much of what goes on in the book is what Reacher is thinking in his head. In the writing process, it was just a matter of figuring out how Reacher could say what he was thinking without getting verbose and what he was feeling without getting too wordy," revealed the writer. 

"Nothing is better for a writer than to figure out how to say something just as good, but in fewer words, so I enjoyed the challenge. I know the writing staff enjoyed the challenge as well. We have Lee Child’s books to work off of, so we have a really great foundation. It’s not too hard to get it done. Lee’s really done all the hard work."

While the first season was solely based on the first Reacher book, it still remains to see if the show will continue on to 26 seasons for the other books that follow. The showrunner admitted that the remaining seasons are still a part of the conversation and that things will emerge with time. The series is in able hands and still works under the presiding of Lee Child. 

The show is also yet not clear on what to do with the magnificent characters of Finlay and Roscoe, portrayed by Malcolm Goodwin and Willa Fitzgerald. "If there was a way to organically have them somehow pop in once in a while into Reacher’s life, wonderful," said the producer. "But we’re not gonna force anything and we’re not gonna do anything that messes up the lore of Reacher. Reacher can’t run around the country with his rag-tag team of crime fighters. That’s not Jack Reacher." 

The writer has mentioned Lee Child as the primary driver of the series many times and maintains that he would always allow the author the first say in the matters because the books and the characters are his creation. 

"If I create a show from whole cloth and I say, “The character wears a blue hat,” and someone says, “Maybe it should be purple,” then I’ll sometimes get my back up and say, “No, this character wears this color hat because I created the character.” But with Lee Child, I am absolutely in the backseat for this ride, and I’m not saying that in a negative way."

"If I come up with an idea that I really like and Lee says, “That doesn’t work,” then all that means is that my idea was wrong and I have to come up with something else," he explained how things work. "If Lee says it doesn’t work, that’s an objective fact. That’s not subjective. Lee knows what Reacher is. It actually frees me up. It takes away the angst that a writer might normally have. I can just say, “Oh, easy, Lee says it doesn’t work, so throw it out and move on.”

As the writer had said earlier, Jack Reacher was a difficult character to play on-screen and it also made the casting similarly tough. "It’s a hard character cast," said Santora. "Don Granger, a producer on this project, says it all the time, “Lee Child wrote a character that doesn’t exist in the real world.” He’s the biggest person in the world. He’s the smartest person in the world. He can be incredibly brave, incredibly smart, and incredibly funny. I’ve never met that person in the real world, so it was a hard casting process."

The crew tested a couple of actors for the role before and after they had Alan Ritchson read for the auditions. And after they had looked at other candidates, they went back to see Alan again. "The actors that auditioned for this role were so good that kudos to Alan for landing the role," revealed the producer. "He didn’t win it over amateurs. He won it over really talented, seasoned actors."

You can watch Reacher on Prime Video.