The military musclehead is smashing his way back into our living rooms — and sooner than you might think…

Reacher season 3 is coming, and you might not have to wait long to be reunited with Alan Ritchson in all of his dinner-table-sized glory.

According to the star of Prime Video’s explosive action series, adapted from the bestselling series of novels by Lee Childs, he’s hard at work on set right now — a recent Instagram post saw him caked in muddy makeup (“Season 3 of Reacher… crustier than ever,” an adjective choice if we’ve ever seen it) — and it could even be ready for Christmas.

If you’ve yet to catch up on Reacher season 1 and 2, let us explain: it’s about the eponymous ex-soldier who now drifts from town to town, confronting bad guys and such (you might’ve seen the viral clip in which he beats up a carjacker with his cinderblock fists). Ritchson has seen his action movie stock skyrocket for starring in it, garnering comparisons in Hollywood circles to the likes of Arnie and Sly Stallone.

While the finale of season two streamed on 19 January, Ritchson delivered some welcome news: Reacher is officially coming back for a third season. And it could be sooner than you’d imagine.

Reacher just got four new faces for its mega-stacked cast

If the average U.S. male weighs just under 200 pounds, with muscle mass accounting for 35 to 40 per cent of that, a bit of back-of-the-napkin math suggests that Reacher just added another 350-ish lbs of muscle to its already mega-stacked cast.

How do we math this math? It’s simple: Prime Video just announced four new actors will be joining the series for season three, in the form of Brian Tee, Johnny Berchtold, Roberto Montesinos and Daniel David Stewart. That’s a lot of flesh.

But who exactly will they play? According to Variety, Tee will play Quinn, a “physically imposing and intimidating” lieutenant colonel investigated by Reacher in the past.

Meanwhile Berchtold comes in as the son of businessman Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall), while Richard will show up as “a college student who lost his mother when he was very young.”

If Montesinos’ character description is anything to go by, he’ll get the action movie kiss of death from the start. He’ll portray Guillermo Villanueva, “a DEA agent on the verge of retirement and mentor/father figure to agent Susan Duffy,” played by Sonya Cassiday. Killing off coppers at the end of their careers is an age old trope, not to too hastily write Mr. Villanueva into our death note — but yeah, he’s a goner.

Finally, Stewart plays Steven Elliot, “a rookie DEA agent who is fresh-faced and new to the job.”

Those Reacher gym seshes must be getting packed.

Reacher season 3 will adapt a fan-favourite Lee Child novel, Persuader — and Alan Ritchson is going undercover for it

Season two of Reacher, in which the eponymous vagabond discovered that one of his ex-military pals had been murdered, served as a self-contained story. Expect the same of season three, which Prime Video has just confirmed will adapt Persuader, the seventh book in the Jack Reacher series.

The season’s official logline offers a morsel as to what’s to come: “Reacher must go undercover to rescue an informant held by a haunting foe from his past.”

For the Reacher-book-series-uninitiated, Persuader sees Reacher pursue long-awaited revenge for the brutal murder of a colleague ten years prior. To get there, he works undercover for the DEA to bring down a suspected drug runner with ties to the man who killed her.

“Some unfinished business has now found Reacher,” states the book’s blurb. “And Reacher is a man who hates unfinished business.” (You have to read this in your deepest, bassiest cinema trailer announcer voice. We don’t make the rules.)

“Ten years ago, a key investigation went sour and someone got away with murder. Now a chance encounter brings it all back. Now Reacher sees his one last shot. Some would call it vengeance. Some would call it redemption.”

And now, with grit and gristle, like you’ve just smoked a twenty pack: “Reacher would call it… justice.”

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Ritchson himself corroborated the plot news in a video on Instagram, which one can only imagine is a challenge to navigate when you have such Herculean hands.

Oh, and he’s waving around a lobster dinner. Long story. Watch it yourself. “Persuader‘s one of the best books there is, and I can’t wait for you to see this season,” he said in the clip.

Reacher season 3 release date: when’s it coming to Prime Video?

In a sneak peek video for the second season dropped by Prime Video in December, Ritchson officially declared the month to be the season of “hot cocoa and smiles, and now Reacher”.

He also revealed that he was hard at work shooting season three… so, taken together, does that mean that Reacher is officially a Christmas movie show now? We’ve long needed a new festive action franchise to take the reins from Die Hard, after all.

There isn’t an official release date set for Reacher season three yet, but it would make sense if it came out around the same time during the festive season in 2024, given the fact it’s already in production. If not then, we’d expect a 2025 release at very the latest.