‘Reacher’ Season 4’s Biggest Risk Could Be Exactly What the Show Needs

The wait for Reacher Season 4 has been a little longer than fans of the show had anticipated, but the hit Prime Video series is going to be making its return to the screen later this year. Three seasons in, we largely know what to expect of Reacher, but fans may be surprised by the direction of the show when it comes back for its Season 4 premiere. Alan Ritchson will still beat the bad guys to a pulp, but this novel installment of Reacher could potentially shift the focus away from the titular character’s backstory.

Reacher Season 4, which is now totally finished filming, is based on the Lee Child novel Gone Tomorrow, which was published in 2009. Like most Jack Reacher novels, it’s another mystery-thriller, this one focusing on a conspiracy involving a chilling suicide and the NYPD. That said, there is one major difference between Gone Tomorrow and the other books that have inspired past seasons of Reacher, and it could give us a version of the series we haven’t seen before.

Season 4 Shifts the Focus Away From Reacher

Jack Reacher will continue to be the main character of Reacher Season 4, but the story of Gone Tomorrow is the first the show has adapted that doesn’t have deep roots in the hero’s origin. Each of the three seasons so far have told stories that are directly linked to Reacher’s personal life and history. Killing Floor, which inspired the first season, kicked off with the murder of Jack Reacher’s older brother. Season 2 was based on Bad Luck and Trouble, incorporating the men and women of Reacher’s Special Investigators as key characters. This past season, Reacher adapted the book Persuader, in which Jack Reacher was hunting down a unsafe man responsible for killing an venerable friend.

Don’t expect any of those deep Reacher ties in Season 4. Gone Tomorrow is a straightforward mystery that doesn’t have some kind of large hook to Reacher’s time in the military. One of the cops isn’t an venerable colleague in trouble. There isn’t a leftover conspiracy from his MP days that ties it all together. This is just Jack Reacher, fully in the present, navigating a situation that’s as novel to him as it is to all of us. This will present a unique challenge for the character, and we’ll get to see how he puts together pieces of a puzzle when he doesn’t have any history or personal connection to lean on.

‘Reacher’ Could Always Flip the Script

Gone Tomorrow should give Reacher a large shift in perspective and, potentially, tone going into Season 4, keeping things fresh as it continues its lengthy run on Prime Video (already renewed for Seasons 5 and 6). However, that doesn’t mean the show is going to take the opportunity for such a substantial change.

The events of Gone Tomorrow have nothing to do with Reacher, his colleagues, or his family. So far, the Reacher series has stuck close to the books when it comes to the major plot points, but the original team behind the show could change that with Season 4 if they want to continue weaving Reacher’s backstory into things. Just because the book doesn’t call for it doesn’t mean the writers can’t alter the events of Gone Tomorrow. That would be unexpected, but it’s also not outside the realm of possibility.

If Reacher stays mostly faithful to the book, however, we’re in for a novel ride with everyone’s favorite blues traveler. He’s should be further out of his element than he’s ever been on the show, which means we’re going to see Reacher get even more original. In other words, it’s going to be a real good time.

Release Date

February 3, 2022

Network

Prime Video

Showrunner

Nick Santora

Directors

Omar Madha, Carol Banker, Julian Holmes, Lin Oeding, M.J. Bassett, Norberto Barba, Stephen Surjik, Thomas Vincent

Writers

Cait Duffy