Fans and the show lose the chance to see Alan Ritchson’s favourite Lee Child novel on screen, the actor says, after he claims a planned season was shelved when "someone got re-elected." Ritchson posted on Threads that Die Trying, the second book in Child’s series, had been cleared for adaptation but was halted by the change he referenced.
Ritchson wrote, "My favorite book. Fun fact: I had it approved until someone got re-elected." The comment came in reply to a fan who lamented that the series has not yet tackled the story in which Reacher confronts a radical militia after he and a politician’s daughter are kidnapped.
The actor did not name any politician in the exchange. The remark follows a public spat in which Ritchson suggested a former president should "go to jail" over ties to Jeffrey Epstein, a comment that drew a response from the White House.
Prime Video has already moved forward with other Lee Child adaptations for Ritchson’s take on Jack Reacher. The streamer gave the series an early renewal for a fifth season in May, before the fourth season premiered. The upcoming instalment adapts Make Me, published in 2015, which is the 12th book in the series and follows Reacher to the Midwestern town of Mother’s Rest, where he teams with private investigator Michelle Chang to search for a missing colleague.
Die Trying, published in 1998, centers on Reacher and a politician’s daughter who are abducted by a militia that seeks to use her as leverage in a bid to secede from the United States. Ritchson’s claim leaves that plot unmade for now, even as production on Season 5 is under way.
For viewers and book fans, the immediate consequence is clear: one of the series’ early and better-known books remains off the schedule. Ritchson’s post signals that the choice reflects more than creative preference, and that political developments, at least in his telling, affected which Lee Child novels move into production next. The show will proceed with Make Me while Die Trying remains an unproduced adaptation.
