Prime Video’s Reacher was a hit in Season 1 , making it among the best Prime Video shows, and so, Season 2 was going to need to find some way to up the ante and be even bigger and better. Star Alan Ritchson has at least one element in the new season that he thinks greatly helps the action, and it's not a member of the Reacher Season 2 cast, or at least not one with any lines. There’s a new member of the stunt team, who he apparently stole from some even bigger stars.
Ryan Terran probably isn’t a name you know unless you follow the world of stunt performers, but you have likely seen him on screen without realizing it. Terran has been a stunt double for Jason Momoa for years, but has also worked with Chris Hemsworth, Dave Bautista, and others. Terran became one of Ritchson’s doubles for Reacher Season 2, and the star tells THR that getting him, apparently literally stealing him away from Momoa was a major benefit to the show. The actor said…
That’s a good question. Having seen season one, there are a lot of choices that we were able to massage going into season two; things we learned from watching season one. A good example we made was that I brought in a new stunt double to join our team, Ryan Tarran, who is one of the best. and I stole him from some of the best actors out there; I hope they’re mad about it. I hope they feel a sense of loss and regret and shame for letting him go. But he stepped up the action that I’ve got — the specificity, the cleanliness of the fights — to a degree that doesn’t even compare to season one. And I think refining things in that way, in all departments in little ways, has really helped to make a really solid show. But thematically, the stakes are higher.
When stars find stunt performers who do good work and function well as doubles, they tend to work together on every new project. Ryan Terran was Jason Momoa’s stunt double on the first Aquaman, and the two have worked together several times since then, However, it appears that Terran really has moved on from Momoa, and teamed up with Alan Ritchson. In addition to doubling for the actor in Reacher he’s also listed in the credits to double for him in Guy Ritchie’s new film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
Certainly to hear Ritchson tell it, getting Ryan Terran was a huge coup for both himself and Reacher. He’s probably having some fun at the expense of Jason Momoa when he says (without naming him) that his Fast X co-star should be “mad about it,” but he is certainly singing the praises of his new double. Terran didn't work for either of them on Fast X, but one wonders if things will get awkward on the set of the planned sequels.
Having said that, the thing that Ryan Terran apparently brought to Reacher wasn’t his physical stunt work, but rather his knowledge of stunt work, which he was able to then use to make the action scenes of the show better. Ritchson says he still did a lot of his own stunts, and Terran would simply watch and critique. Ritchson explained…
Ryan, I say good things about him but dude never does anything for me (laughs). He sits there and he eats Craig’s Cookies. Yeah, he doesn’t do anything, he just like stands by the monitor and critiques my performances, like, ‘It’s not good enough!’ I’m, like, ‘Why don’t you get in there and do your F-ing job!’ And he’s like, ‘Because I don’t want to!’ Actually, he’s Australian: ‘I don’t want tooo, I rather eat a kangaroo somewhere’ (in an attempted Australian accent). That’s kind of how he sounds, and not everybody eats kangaroo. I’m not trying to offend the kangaroo-eating crowd.
Whatever the situation, Amazon must at least love what they’re seeing, as Reacher was given a Season 3 renewal before people with a Prime Video subscription ever saw any of Season 2. What the show will do to make Season 3 even better than Season 2 remains to be seen.
