By now, any fan of Jack Reacher will know the story of how Prime Video’s “Reacher” series came to be. Once the Tom Cruise-led films were out of the way, fans demanded a more physically imposing leading man, which they got with the Alan Ritchson-starring “Reacher” — Prime Video’s steaming series that topped Nielsen streaming charts in 2022.

An essential part of the Jack Reacher character is his size. Described as being six-foot-five, between 220 and 250 pounds, and having a 50-inch chest, the former military police officer is a giant brute of a man whose physically imposing presence belies a heart of gold and a keen sense of justice.

So, when the 205-pound Alan Ritchson came in to audition for the Jack Reacher streaming series, he was almost there in terms of physical proportions but not quite. As such, Amazon wasn’t initially sure about casting the “Titans” actor.

That might seem unbelievable considering how well fans have since responded to his debut as Jack Reacher. But at the time, the importance of the leading man’s size can’t be overstated. As author of the Jack Reacher novels, Lee Child, explained to Reader’s Digest, giving fans a book-accurate version of the protagonist was crucial.

The writer said, “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.”

In that sense, the whole point of “Reacher” was to deliver a version of the character who more faithfully represented the man mountain of the novels. Which is probably why, after he was eventually cast, Ritchson took the physical element of the role seriously enough to ultimately require shoulder surgery.

Amazon gave Ritchson a goal weight

Prime Video

Once Alan Ritchson had been cast, Amazon and Skydance, the studios responsible for “Reacher,” decided on a goal weight for their on-screen version of the character. That weight was a non-negotiable 235 pounds — pretty much slap bang in the middle of that 220-250 pound weight scale.

Speaking to the Rich Eisen Show, Ritchson revealed that he wasn’t allowed to show up to set weighing any less than this 235-pound target. The actor said:

“I was 205 when I got cast […] I needed to put on 30 pounds for the roll, I needed to be at least 235, that was like my mandate from the studio, ‘you cannot show up to set without being 235.'”

Ritchson was no stranger to physical training. He’d been a professional model before venturing into acting, and not only played superhero Hank Hall/Hawk in the MAX (then known as HBO Max) series “Titans,” but one of his first big roles was that of Arthur Curry/Aquaman on “Smallville.” In other words, Ritchson was used to staying in shape.

But in order to hit Amazon’s required weight for “Reacher,” the actor pushed himself beyond anything he’d done before. He continued:

“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. I had to get shoulder surgery after the season and it was rough.”

Reacher was a tough shoot for Alan Ritchson

Prime Video

When he first started work on “Reacher,” it wasn’t just the grueling workout regimen that was new to Alan Ritchson. In a behind-the-scenes clip, the actor described learning the fight choreography for the show as yet another demanding and novel experience, despite his decades of working in action:

“The fighting style was so specific and different than anything I’d ever seen, honestly. I was having a panic attack because I was like ‘I can never fight like that.’

I’ve been doing fights and stunts my whole career and I’ve done a lot of the martial arts, and [Reacher] moves in such a way that elbows and knees become a tool that we’re just not used to seeing elbows used like knives on screen. It’s so clean and specific and it’s been a lot of fun to bring that to life, a lot of work, I mean you know months of preparation.”

Shooting “Reacher” really does sound as exhausting as being Jack Reacher himself, with Ritchson clearly dedicating himself to not just getting his weight up to par but also to making sure the combat was accurate.

When you factor in that the leading man was so pressed for time during the filming of season 1, that by the end he was, as the actor told /Film, “just learning fights in a parking lot, wherever we were shooting at the time, trying to get it ready for the next day,” it all just sounds pretty punishing, honestly. Thankfully, things seem to have been a little easier on Ritchson for season 2.

Things have gotten easier for Alan Ritchson

Prime Video

Following his arduous experience on season 1 of “Reacher,” Alan Ritchson seems to have figured out a way to make life easier for himself. As he went on to tell Rich Eisen, after season 1 the star underwent tests and found that he had low testosterone.

So, for season 2 of “Reacher” — a much bigger and better season overall — he was receiving testosterone replacement therapy and found things to be much more manageable, telling the host, “It was like, ‘Oh my God’ like a new me and ever since then it makes my job easier. There’s going to be less wear and tear because I don’t have to push.”

Let’s hope the already confirmed “Reacher” season 3, which is set to be based on the best Jack Reacher novel, will be even easier on Ritchson. After all, it’s not like the writers had to let up on the action in season 2 to give their star an easier time, so there’s no reason to put the now 41-year-old through the wringer next time around.

In the meantime it does seem odd that Ritchson wasn’t given some sort of professional trainer to ensure his season 1 prep work wasn’t going to kill the poor guy. But hey, fans got the big old hulk they wanted and Tom Cruise is having a grand old time churning out “Mission: Impossible” movies and not having to meet any weight goals. So, it worked out in the end.