Reacher is about to get a new creative shepherd, and it’s someone who is intimately familiar with the ways of book series creator Lee Child.
The credited author on 30 Reacher books and one short story collection, Child is stepping aside from all aspects of the brand he created on the back of his attachment-averse fictional investigator, including the hit Prime Video show, and handing the baton to his younger brother Andrew Child.
“It’s all his now,” the 71-year-old Lee Child said when asked recently about his exit from acting as steward of the Reacher universe (via USA Today, h/t Collider).
The 57-year-old Andrew Child is co-credited as the author of six Reacher books, beginning with 2020’s The Sentinel, and including the latest release, 2025’s appropriately-titled Exit Strategy.
Though the elder Child’s name has been on all the books, two of the titles were actually solo-written by the younger Child, Exit Strategy being the second.
The hand-off of Reacher from one brother to the other should be a smooth one, as Andrew related, explaining how authorship is not the important thing when it comes to his and his sibling’s iconic creation:
Our goal was to make the change as seamless as possible. We have this idea that really the author isn’t important in this situation. It’s the character that is the important thing. We want people going to the bookstore to buy the new Reacher, not the new Child, Lee or Andrew.
Prime Video’s Reacher series has introduced the Childs’ creation to a whole new audience, with Alan Ritchson proving the perfect choice to play the book series’ physically imposing, keen-minded, justice-seeking hero.
Reacher season 4 will adapt the novel Gone Tomorrow, the 13th book in the series, published in 2009. It’s not yet been revealed which Reacher book will be adapted for season 5.
Ritchson himself spoke recently with ScreenRant about Reacher season 4, promising a story packed with fights that are both bone-crunching and relevant to plot and character:
“We’ve set a record for the amount of fights that we’ve done this season, but all for good reason,” the star said. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Prime Video’s Reacher universe is now set to expand beyond the original series, with Jack’s haphephobic co-investigator Frances Neagley getting her own spinoff, with Maria Sten back as Neagley.
Shooting on Neagley season 1 wrapped in June 2025, with a release expected some time in 2026.
Reacher season 4 wrapped earlier in November, and is also set to premiere on Prime Video some time in 2026.