An essential characteristic of Lee Child’s acclaimed hero, Jack Reacher, has always been his size. Described in the novels as being well above average in frame and stature, Reacher is a former military police officer whose specialized training is made all the more effective due to his incredible natural gifts, which come coupled with a keen sense of justice. Over a decade ago, Jack Reacher hit the silver screen for the first time with Tom Cruise in the title role. For everything that Cruise generally brings to his performances (especially in action roles), given Reacher’s physically imposing size (and Cruise’s lack thereof), die-hard Jack Reacher fans weren’t exactly thrilled with his casting. So, when Amazon Prime was looking to launch a new generation of Jack Reacher stories, they settled on a man who fits the physically taxing bill: Alan Ritchson.

How Tall Is Jack Reacher Compared to Alan Ritchson?

When looking to cast a new actor for the role of Jack Reacher after Tom Cruise’s back-to-back performances as the character in 2012 and 2016, respectively, author Lee Child knew that this time, they would have to go in a different direction, one that was a little more book-accurate. During a conversation with Reader’s Digest, Child reflected on the movie adaptation’s blow-back in regard to Cruise’s casting while admitting that this time, he wanted to give readers what they were asking for, saying,

“I love Tom Cruise, I think he’s a great actor, and he’s certainly a great guy… but ultimately, the readers felt he was not an accurate representation of Reacher, and I’ve got to defer to the readers.”

With that in mind, casting for Amazon Prime’s Reacher focused primarily on those actors capable of cutting an imposing figure while still having the necessary acting chops to carry an entire season of television on the back of their (well-sculpted) shoulders. It didn’t take long for the studio and Child to reach a consensus that the best man for the job was (then) up-and-coming actor Alan Ritchson.

Jack Reacher (Novels)
Alan Ritchson
Tom Cruise

Height
6 ft 5 in
6 ft 4 in
5 ft 7 in

Weight
250lb
235lb
150lb

Hair Color

As originally conceived by Lee Child, Jack Reacher’s imposing size of 6’5″ tall and weighing up to 250 pounds was always meant to serve as a sort of allegory for this U.S. Army veteran’s unstoppable manner. Once he catches the scent of a crime or injustice, he refuses to back down and attacks the problem like an absolute force of nature. Alan Ritchson, standing at 6’4″ tall and weighing a hefty 235 pounds, more than adequately fits that bill, and while fans might not have known precisely who he was upon hearing he had landed the job, they’d soon learn and come to believe that Lee Child found the right man to bring his most infamous character to life.

How Did Alan Ritchson Reach the Same Weight as Jack Reacher?

With a Lot of Hard Work and a Little Desperation

Alan Ritchson was born a very, very large man. While his immense height was already enough to make him stand as tall as Jack Reacher, if he wanted to truly bring the character, as written on the page, to life, he needed to add a little weight. In fact, Amazon Prime and Skydance studios had a weight goal already in mind: a non-negotiable 235 pounds. At the time of his casting, Ritchson tipped the scales at just 205 pounds, so he needed to get busy.

Thankfully, Alan Ritchson was no stranger to time spent in the gym. Before getting into acting, he’d spent time as a professional model. More than just that, Ritchson’s well-known earliest roles involved bringing physically imposing superheroes like Hank Hall/Hawk (Titans) and Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Smallville) to life. However, in order to reach the contractually obligated weight for the role of Jack Reacher, Ritchson had to push himself harder than he ever had before in his life. During a conversation on the Rich Eisen Show, Ritchson revealed,

“I had eight months to do it, I built a gym in my house, and I worked my ass off. You cannot believe how hard I worked, every day, like my life depended on it. Hour, two hours a day, so in that amount of time I could put the muscle on. And I did it without any help – no steroids, no testosterone, nothing good for you, just hard work. So, I got through but it also killed me.”

By the time Alan Ritchson had completed shooting Season 1 of Jack Reacher, he had pushed his body to such limits that he required shoulder surgery to address an injury. Thankfully, shortly after that, Ritchson found ways to make life easier for himself the following season. He did some testing and discovered that his body was naturally low on testosterone, so before Season Two, Ritchson underwent testosterone replacement therapy and found the physical demands of the role to be much more manageable the second time around.

Ever since then, Alan Ritchson says he’s felt like a new man and that his job has become immensely easier. Unfortunately for him, however, business is about to pick up in Season 2 of Jack Reacher, and even Ritchson may have finally met his physical equal.

How Jack Reacher May Meet His Physical Match in Season Three

Enter: The Dutch Giant

The upcoming third season of Jack Reacher, based on the seventh novel in the series, Persuader, is slated to hit Amazon Prime in early 2025. While Reacher’s primary target in the soon-to-be-released batch of new episodes is a drug smuggler by the name of Zachary Beck, he’ll also have to contend with one of Beck’s deranged bodyguards, a man by the name of Paulie, who’s even bigger than Reacher himself.

Described in Persuader as being six inches taller than Jack Reacher, Paulie Masserella is the guard who stands watch over Beck’s estate. In order to bring Beck down once and for all, Reacher will have to go toe-to-toe with Paulie and emerge victorious, which will certainly be no easy feat considering who the producers have cast in the role: 2021’s tallest professional bodybuilder in the world, Olivier Richters.

Nicknamed “The Dutch Giant,” Olivier Richters is no stranger to acting either. He has appeared (albeit briefly) in films such as Black Widow as well as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. His work in the upcoming third season of Reacher has already begun to receive a ton of acclaim from his co-stars, like Anthony Michael Hall, who portrays the role of Richters’s boss, Zachary Beck. During a conversation with CinemaBlend, Hall spoke glowingly about Richters’ imposing physical nature, comparing it to that of Jaws from the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, while also teasing what’s to come, saying,

“[Paulie] does live in the show, and they have an epic battle. I don’t want to give it away, but yeah, they definitely meet as they do in the book… You know, Reacher and Paulie colliding – there’s something Marvel about that, right? They’re like two superhero-sized guys, so it’s kind of cool.”

No matter how much of a challenge The Dutch Giant poses to Alan Ritchson, the Reacher well will not dry up at Amazon Prime any time soon. The head of Amazon and MGM Studios, Jennifer Salke, has already promised that Ritchson will continue as Jack Reacher for as long as he wants to keep playing the character.

For his part, Alan Ritchson has doubled down on that sentiment, suggesting that he will continue to portray Jack Reacher until his body gives out on him. Considering there are 28 novels in the Jack Reacher canon already, that might be a very long time, which is yet another reason why fans should be happy that Alan Ritchson has the stamina and size to fill Jack Reacher’s intimidating size-12 boots.