Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys: Jack Reacher Creator Lee Child’s Sound Advice for Surviving Crazy Times

With its previous seasons leaving audiences craving more, Reacher on Amazon Prime Video is making a powerful return today, February 20, 2025, with its third season. This action-packed series, based on Lee Child's acclaimed novels, has captivated viewers since its debut in 2022. The third drop, which is based on the 2023 novel Persuader of the Jack Reacher book series, promises to deliver more of the high-octane thrills and gripping storytelling that fans have come to love.

Reacher follows the journey of Jack Reacher, portrayed by Alan Ritchson, a former U.S. Army Military Police Major who roams the country, tackling crime with his unique brand of justice. Known for his towering presence and formidable fighting skills, Reacher is a character that embodies the rugged, lone-wolf archetype, venturing into dangerous situations with nothing but his wits and fists.

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We talk to the novelist-slash-producer Lee Child of the Jack Reacher book and TV series:

Esquire Philippines: Well, first of all, congratulations on season three. Wow. I would like to ask what you think has made Jack Reacher, the character, so popular? The Prime series has been great, and it's been received well. What do you think it is about either the show or the character that has gotten us to season three?

Lee Child: Well, because the character is really a very ancient paradigm. I think all of us, everybody, whoever you are, you've got some kind of a problem. Hopefully, it's not very serious. It could be very, very serious. But we all want somebody to show up at your door. Strong, silent type of person who will fix your problem. And then off he goes.

We all crave that. We've craved that for thousands of years. And so now we've got a really modern version of that with Jack Reacher. He is that old character who will solve your problems. But it's a great series set in the modern world in a very realistic way.

Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher

Esquire Philippines: The Jack Reacher series is — just there's just so much of it, you know? As a producer and the creator of the series, how do you choose which of the books to adapt into a new season?

Lee Child: Well, first of all, we got the luxury of being able to choose any of them because the books were written as standalone pieces. They do not have to be read in order. You don't have to have read the earlier books before you read any particular one. And so we could pick and choose as we wanted. So we thought for season one, let's root Reacher emotionally with references to his own actual family.

And then season two, we rooted it emotionally with his professional family, his old unit from the army. And so for season three, we felt, OK, now we've introduced him. Now we've shown where he comes from. Now, he can be the lone wolf that he normally is. So season three is based on Persuader, where Reacher is operating alone undercover in terrible danger all the time. And that is the perfect Reacher.

And I'm really excited about season three. I think it came out really scary. If you are Reacher, you're in trouble for minute one. And it's just a joy watching him get out of all that trouble.

Esquire Philippines: Speaking of trouble, this is supposed to be a later question, but since you brought it up, Reacher's made a lot of enemies over the course of almost 30 books. So where would you say Pauly and Quinn rank among his rogues gallery in the tier of his rogues gallery?

Lee Child: I think pretty high. I think Quinn is one of the most sinister opponents Reacher's ever had. And, of course, Pauly is a giant. You know, we're used to Reacher being the biggest guy in any scene. And here's a guy that's a foot taller than Reacher and 100 pounds heavier. How is Reacher going to deal with that? And there's a brilliant scene in the show where Reacher delivers a punch that would kill most guys. And Pauly doesn't even notice. And the expression on Reacher's face is like, oh, my God, what am I going to do now?

Esquire Philippines: How does this season deviate from Persuader (the book)?

Lee Child: Well, you know, when you look at it as a writer and then as a TV producer, in order to get the same result, everything has to change. So there's a lot of deviation, but it feels exactly the same. That's the hallmark of a great show. Of course, it has to change because you're putting something from the page to the screen. So everything will change. But it has to feel the same. And I think we succeeded in that very well.

Esquire Philippines: Would Jack Reacher have an (arch)enemy on the same level as Arthur Conan Doyle's Moriarty, for example?

Lee Child: As a writer, I was always reluctant to do that because that is admitting that there is somebody who is Reacher’s equal. And I think what people find fascinating is Reacher is always the top dog. And we can then project ourselves into that. How would it feel if we were all the toughest person that you ever met? You could walk down the street at three in the morning, and nothing would ever scare you. I think that's what reassures people.

So, I don't want to come up with an equal for Reacher. He's going to win every time. The only question is how brutal is it going to be?

Esquire Philippines: I want to ask this question, and I hope you can answer this one. Because we've heard that Reacher — this is the way Neagley described it — hates the big, the powerful who think they can get away with things. What would you say would Reacher's reaction be, or his opinion, on the state of things now in America or the world where the big and the powerful get away with things?

Lee Child: He would be pretty disgusted. But his attitude is he can only control what he can control. And he, like me, like you, probably he said, not my circus, not my monkeys. Let them do what they need to do.

Esquire Philippines: Yeah, that's a pretty sane approach. I'm really happy to see Francis Neagley back in season three. Would you happen to make a cameo as well?

Lee Child: I was going to, but it never happened. So maybe we're going to have to do that in season four. And so we'll see about that.

Esquire Philippines: Speaking of season four, Pauly is the biggest guy that we've got in the books. How do you think we're going to be able to top that? What kind of plans would you have beyond season three?

Lee Child: Well, as a writer, I was constantly trying to challenge Reacher. And, of course, Pauly is huge. But there's a later book, for instance, where the really bad guy is tiny. He's a he's a dwarf. And so, you know, Reacher can get challenged by anything. But will he win? I think he will. So we'll see where it goes with subsequent seasons.