In 'Reacher' Season 3, foes and feels are bigger for Alan Ritchson's ...

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'Reacher': Alan Ritchson reveals what 'brutal' fight scenes were like

Alan Ritchson shares with USA TODAY's Brian Truitt what it was like filming fight scenes and intense standoffs in the new season of "Reacher."

USA TODAY

“Reacher” star Alan Ritchson takes being a good guy so seriously that not only does he punch his foes on the action show, he feeds them off-screen.

Which is saying something, considering the sizable new addition to the “Reacher” cast: Instead of crashing the catering table together, the super-buff Ritchson shared his own personal chef with 7-foot-2-inch Dutch bodybuilder-turned-actor Olivier Richters. “Look, I'm throwing down, like, 4,000 calories a day. This guy's twice my size. We’ve got to make sure he's not wasting away,” Ritchson says with a laugh.

Everything is larger, from villains to emotions, in the third season of Amazon Prime's “Reacher" (first three episodes streaming now, then weekly on Thursdays), based on the Lee Child novels. The series has proven so popular that it's already been renewed for a fourth season, and a spinoff is in production.

“Everyone loves this show because it is so grounded yet bigger and badder than ever,” says Reacher-verse newcomer Brian Tee. “We go along for the ride and (Reacher’s) the hero that we all want because he doesn't pull any punches.”

Season 1 found Jack Reacher (Ritchson), former head of an Army special investigators unit and current bone-crunching drifter, dealing with the loss of his brother and cleaning up a small Georgia town. The second season teamed him with close friend Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) to look into the murders of members of their unit/adopted family. The new season sees Reacher partnering with DEA agent Susan Duffy (Sonya Cassidy) and working undercover as security for shady rug importer Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall) to find a confidential informant and take revenge on the mystery man (Tee) responsible for killing someone close to Reacher.

'Reacher' trailer: Alan Ritchson's hero goes undercover in Season 3

Played by Alan Ritchson, the title drifter goes undercover to seek out a man he thought was dead in Season 3 of the Amazon action show "Reacher."

“What does it look like when you mess with one of the most important relationships in his world?” Ritchson says. “Reacher's unchanging. This is not a character who has some great evolution over the course of the book series or the show. But what we can do is really ratchet up the stakes (and) give it some gravity.”

Reacher also is tested physically when going up against Paulie (Richters), Beck’s giant henchman and the hero’s co-worker, of sorts. “What you expect is for Reacher or anybody who sees somebody that size to be intimidated and walk on eggshells around him. And Reacher's Reacher,” Ritchson says. “So the way that he's poking the bear, he's happy to do it with somebody who's 7-2, 400 pounds, and I think we love him for it.”

Richters, inspired by Richard Kiel’s old-school James Bond baddie Jaws, says he had to build up Paulie’s “irritation” level, from when Reacher refuses his order to get out of a car (“versus a 7-foot-2 guy, who does that?”) to a “gym bro” encounter. “From there on, it just keeps going until two titans collide. I love that.”

Richters appreciated Ritchson lending him a chef for his seven meals a day, and Hall was struck by Richters’ humility and passion for his “new career” in acting. “It was great to see that through Olivier's eyes,” Hall says. “It just meant the world to him, as it did for me as an old dog. While they were working out, I was eating out.”

As for Reacher’s allies, Duffy’s a federal agent with a thick Boston accent who shares a lot of Reacher’s personality quirks. “It’s hilarious and kind of delicious to see another person come into Reacher's life being like, ‘Why are you acting the way you are?” Cassidy says. “Duffy isn't particularly impressed when she first meets him, but then over time they earn each other's trust and a bond is formed that catches them off guard.”

No one has a bond with Reacher like Neagley, however. Now a private eye in Chicago, she travels to Maine to assist her pal but knows early on he’s going to need help when he tells her he doesn’t. For Neagley, “I don't want you to come” is “certainly a red flag,” Sten says. “She takes offense: I’m not just anyone, this is me.”

Neagley is also the main character of a “Reacher” spinoff that started filming this week, and Sten teases a “John Wick” level of grittiness. “You dive much deeper into Neagley and her psyche and what she grapples with,” Sten says, “and, of course, you get to have the cool, really kick-ass action.”

Might her buddy Reacher stop in for an appearance? “We cannot confirm or deny. We will have to kill you if you find out,” Ritchson says. “Probably, maybe, a very good chance. If I just happen to fly through Chicago, and it makes sense.”