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Why Reacher Season 2 Is Skipping To Book 11, Bad Luck & Trouble
It was recently confirmed that Reacher season 2 would adapt book 11, Bad Luck and Trouble rather than continuing on to book 2. So why skip 9 books?

Why Reacher Season 2 Is Skipping To Book 11, Bad Luck & Trouble

It was recently revealed that Reacher season 2 would be adapting Lee Child’s eleventh Jack Reacher book, Bad Luck and Trouble. Reacher season 1 was a relatively faithful adaptation of the first Jack Reacher novel, Killing Floor. It seemed likely that Reacher season 2 would therefore continue in turn with book 2, Die Trying, but that is apparently not the case.

Reacher season 1 sees Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) roll into the fictional town of Margrave, Georiga, where he is promptly accused of a murder that happened before he arrived. After proclaiming his innocence, he helps Roscoe (Willa Fitzgerald) and Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin) to solve the real crime and uncover corruption throughout the town. His job done, just as at the end of most Jack Reacher stories, Reacher carries on down the road, leaving the town behind as he heads on to his next adventure.

Nick Santora, the showrunner behind Amazon’s Reacher TV series presumably picked book 11, Bad Luck and Trouble for Reacher season 2 to tie in with a major change that the show made from book 1. Reacher season 1 introduces Maria Sten as Francis Neagley, an old military comrade of Reacher’s who didn’t originally appear until book 6, Lee Child’s Without Fail. Sten is confirmed to return for Reacher season 2 alongside Alan Ritchson, while no other cast members are expected to return. With Bad Luck and Trouble based around past members of the U.S. Army 110th MP Special Investigation Unit as they appear to be targeted and murdered. Neagley and Reacher’s shared history in the group makes sense for them to return together and it can work to create a more interconnected series from season to season.

Bad Luck and Trouble allow for interplay between Neagley and Reacher to be seen on screen again in Reacher season 2 in a way that adapting Die Trying would not have done. More importantly, because the story is so intricately tied to the 110th MP Special Investigations unit, Amazon’s Reacher will have a good way to dig into Jack Reacher’s back story. While Reacher season 1 included some military and family backstories, there are a lot of mysteries around Jack Reacher’s past still to be uncovered, and Reacher season 2 adapting Bad Luck & Trouble can make that come faster than originally expected.

When Reacher season 1 first aired, mixed messages were released about the direction the future of the show might take. Alan Ritchson expressed a desire to do each of the books in order all the way through the series. Meanwhile, Nick Santora assured viewers that they shouldn’t assume that the series would adapt Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels in sequence. With Reacher season 2 confirmed to adapt Bad Luck and Trouble, it’s clear that there were story considerations that made it the better choice, but it might also mean that the show diverges further from the books.