Given that Lee Child has penned over 20 books, there are plenty of missing Jack Reacher characters that Amazon needs to use in Reacher season 3.
Mild spoilers ahead for some of the Jack Reacher novels that haven’t been adapted by Amazon’s series.
SUMMARY
Jack Reacher’s drifter lifestyle allows for different settings and antagonists in each season.
Viewers are wondering if season 2 characters like Roscoe and Finlay will return for season 3.
Key characters from Jack Reacher’s past will be featured in the central conspiracy of season 2, such as Karla Dixon.
Given that Lee Child has penned over 20 books, there are plenty of missing Jack Reacher characters that Amazon needs to use in Reacher season 3. The titular character’s drifter lifestyle fits in with Child’s thriller series’ need to move from setting to setting and swap in different antagonists.
On the other hand, Reacher, who insists he’s a “hobo” at heart, moves around too much to form very many meaningful relationships. In season 1, for example, Alan Ritchson’s Reacher grows close to Margrave police officer Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald). In the books, Jack commits Roscoe’s phone number to memory — clearly there’s a connection — but the two never reunite.
Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation had viewers wondering if Reacher season 2 would feature Roscoe and Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin), the Margrave detective who became another fan-favorite, season-one character.
In the novels, some characters do crop up several times, including Reacher’s friend and professional ally Frances Neagley, who was played by Maria Sten in the show’s first outing. With Reacher season 2 adapting Bad Luck and Trouble, viewers can expect to see Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan) and other key characters from Jack Reacher’s past who get caught up in the narrative’s central conspiracy.
10. General Leon Garber
Die Trying, The Affair, The Enemy, Night School & Tripwire
A familiar face from Jack Reacher’s military backstory, General Leon Garber was a senior officer in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps. Throughout Reacher’s Army tenure, he served under Garber on several occasions, but the two had a compelling personal relationship too.
While Leon Garber served as a professional mentor to Jack Reacher, the scruffy officer also stepped into a father-figure role for Jack. Despite appearing in several books, Leon Garber eventually passes away and leaves his house to Reacher, whom he thought of as a son. In fact, Garber could be Reacher‘s perfect Tom Cruise cameo role — and very meta at that.
9. Holly Johnson
Die Trying
At first, it seemed safe to assume that Reacher season 2 would adapt Die Trying. Ultimately, the Amazon series decided to change things and tackle the eleventh Jack Reacher book instead. That means viewers won’t see Holly Johnson on their screens in the sophomore outing, though the FBI agent definitely deserves a spot in Reacher season 3.
Die Trying opens with Reacher trying to assist an injured Holly with her dry cleaning, though the two are promptly kidnapped by a radical military sect that wants to secede from the U.S., forcing them to team up. An intelligent, unafraid character, Holly would make a welcome addition to the TV series.
8. Jodie Garber-Jacob
Tripwire, The Visitor (A.K.A. Running Blind)
The daughter of Leon Garber, Reacher’s mentor, Jodie Garber-Jacob is a New York City-based attorney. Given Reacher season 2’s setting shift — it trades the book’s California location for NYC — Jodie might turn up at some point, though her biggest role is in Tripwire.
Jodie hires a private investigator named Costello to find Reacher; when Costello is murdered, Reacher tracks down his boss and is shocked to discover that it’s Leon’s daughter. Having harbored a crush on Jack for years, Jodie does get romantically involved with Reacher. For many fans, Jodie might be Reacher’s best match, though the pair agree to break up in the books.
7. Agent Lamarr
The Visitor (A.K.A. Running Blind)
One of the more compelling antagonists in the Jack Reacher series, Agent Lamarr is a lead FBI profiler in The Visitor (titled Running Blind in the U.S.). Reacher season 2’s plan misses out on book moments that are truly unforgettable, and one such moment is the reveal that Lamarr has been the serial killer the whole time.
Dead-set on getting an inheritance, Lamarr uses her impressive hypnosis techniques to force her victims into suffocating on their own tongues. It appears to be the perfect crime — until Reacher puts the pieces of the puzzle together.
6. Agent M.E. Froelich
Without Fail
In Reacher season 1, Molly Beth Gordon (Lara Jean Chorostecki) is a Secret Service agent who was involved with Jack’s late brother, Joe (Christopher Russell). In Killing Floor, the novel adapted by the first season, Joe had dated a fellow agent named M.E. Froelich.
Unlike Molly Beth, Froelich has a much more compelling thread, which plays out in Without Fail. After hiring Reacher to conduct a security audit of the Secret Service, Froelich is caught in the crossfire. Ultimately, she dies in Reacher’s arms. In her final moments, Froelich mistakes him for Joe. Reacher plays along, saying he loved her too in one of the novels’ most emotional scenes.
5. James Barr
One Shot
A top-tier Jack Reacher novel, One Shot was adapted for the screen in 2012, but it would also make for a perfect season of television. In the book’s opening, a shooter attacks a crowd of seemingly random citizens, firing six shots — though only five are fatal.
The prime suspect is James Barr, a former member of the U.S. Army. During his military tenure, James killed several Americans in Kuwait City, and the Army buried the tragedy. Reacher, however, knows the truth and is eager to mount a case against Barr for the One Shot shooting. An incredibly compelling character, Barr needs to feature in future Reacher seasons.
4. Edward Lane
The Hard Way
In 2006’s The Hard Way, Jack Reacher is minding his own business and having a coffee at a New York café when he witnesses an apparent car break-in. The incident is related to a kidnapping: according to the wealthy Edward Lane, his wife and daughter were taken.
Even though Lane has his own private military of ex-Army guns, he needs Reacher’s particular set of skills to track his family down. Full of twists and turns, The Hard Way reveals that Edward Lane is a much more complex, manipulative figure. Needless to say, any future season of the show would benefit from his appearance.
Reacher season 2 begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video on December 15.
3. McGrath
Die Trying
While Holly Johnson and Jack Reacher are (literally) tied up in the separatists’ mountain-side commune, Holly’s fellow FBI agents mount a search for her. When security footage makes Reacher out to be the prime suspect in Holly’s disappearance, Leon Garber is called upon to help the FBI out.
McGrath, an agent in charge of the Chicago office where Holly works, takes the lead on the investigation. Eventually, Reacher and McGrath team up, but what works so well is that their stories remain separate for a while. In addition to presenting a compelling narrative structure for the show, McGrath is romantically linked to Holly, which causes some problems for Reacher.
2. Victor Truman “Hook” Hobie
Tripwire
In Tripwire‘s prologue, readers learn more about Victor Truman “Hook” Hobie and his carefully plotted escape route — one he means to use if anyone discovers his “really big, well-guarded secret.” True to action-genre form, Hobie has had an elaborate system of tripwires established for three decades, making him feel pretty secure.
Of course, things change when Reacher and Jodie start investigating her father’s last project: discovering Hobie’s whereabouts, as he was reported missing-in-action during Vietnam. A paranoid Hobie becomes aware of Reacher’s movements, culminating in one of the series’ most thrilling novels.
1. Michelle Chang
Make Me
There’s a slim possibility that Reacher season 3 will adapt a more recent novel, like Lee Child’s 2015 book Make Me. If it does, the show will introduce viewers to the small town of Mother’s Rest — a place where the people are just as peculiar as the hamlet’s name.
After arriving in Mother’s Rest, Reacher meets Michelle Chang, an ex-FBI agent who’s taken up private investigator work during her retirement. Currently, she’s looking for her former colleague, Keever, so Reacher decides to help. Like Killing Floor, Make Me has a more contained, localized plot, and Michelle is the perfect replacement for both Roscoe and Finlay.