Reacher Season 3 is almost here, and with a new season comes a new enemy—and this time, there’s an entire team up against our favourite anti-hero. Anthony Michael Hall, Olivier Richters and Brian Tee play some of the toughest villains Reacher has faced, with Richters towering over Alan Ritchson in real life.
Reacher Season 3 follows Reacher into the lion’s den, so to speak, as he works undercover for the DEA under Zachary Beck (Hall). We sat down with what I’ve dubbed “Team Bad” of Reacher Season 3 to discuss how they feel about playing the bad guys on set and how they would describe their characters ahead of the new season’s premiere.
Thank you for being here with us today.
Anthony Michael Hall: You too. Hi Dayna.
Brian Tee: Thank you for having us. Yeah.
Reacher Season 3 is very much Team Good and Team Bad. How does it feel to be on Team Bad, boys?
Brian Tee: It feels good.
Anthony Michael Hall: It feels good!
Brian Tee: Yeah. I think, in my opinion, I don’t think in the prior seasons he’s had this formidable foe. I think what we love about Reacher is his kind of bruteness, his brawnness in that context, too. But he’s also extremely intelligent and smart. And I think with all of us together, you have all of those imposing forces, right? You’re also the smarts, but then also the brawn all in one.
Olivier Richters: And the businessmen.
Brian Tee: And the businessmen. So I think there’s a lot of things, especially in this season, that really elevated from the others.
Olivier Richters: Yeah. But I think I speak for all of us. We have been on this show for a year because of the actor strike. It really felt like more like a family. And normally on films, you see each other, you work, and that’s it. So we already had some conversations before this, and it’s great to see each other again as a family. Yes, yes.
Anthony Michael Hall: And just rich material. I think Nick [Santora] and the team were very true to Persuader, the novel, and I had it on set with me. It was really great. I think there are just big portions of it that he was very dedicated to, sort of translating onto the screen.
So fans of the book series and the show, I think will be very happy because I think this is one of the most popular of all of Lee’s [Child’s] books in terms of the Reacher series. So, just that rule of conflict being bad, it’s a lot of fun. It’s fun to play bad guys and to bring that conflict and that dark energy. It’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.
Brian Tee: Good to be bad,
Anthony Michael Hall: Good to be bad!
Absolutely. Now, I think a big part of Reacher is that he’s so big, so scary, even though he’s really not. What’s it like to be the biggest, scariest guys now against the biggest, scariest guy?
Anthony Michael Hall: I defer. [laughs]
I don’t know, Brian is pretty scary in this one!
Brian Tee: Thank you. What’s it feel like? I don’t know, it’s interesting. I think Reacher is so incredibly beloved. I think he’s the hero we all want. I don’t think he pulls any punches. I think he really is that type of individual that we all root for. And, of course, he’s extremely strong and imposing but yet extremely intellectual. Right? I think that’s what we love about him.
And when you get all of us together, we’re a formidable foe team in that context, too. And it really kind of provides this wonderful arc as far as storytelling is concerned, to really kind of put Reacher’s back to the wall and see if he has the goods to defeat us.
Olivier Richters: I think my main job was to be the first villain that wasn’t intimidated by him. I think in the first episode, we will see that I don’t feel how normal people feel when they see Reacher for the first time. But that’s the thing about being a giant: I always look down on people, and that’s how I also played it.
Anthony Michael Hall: Oh, you nailed it. He’s a big teddy bear.
If you could sum up your character in Reacher Season 3 in one sentence, what would it be?
Brian Tee: Psychopathic socio-narcissist.
Olivier Richters: Freak of nature.
Anthony Michael Hall: A dark force, maybe.
Awesome. Thank you very much. That’s all the time we have. Reacher Season 3 is great, I love it. I need the last two episodes.
Brian Tee: Thank you!
Olivier Richters: Thank you!
Anthony Michael Hall: Thank you, nice to meet you!
Reacher Season 3 premieres on Prime Video on February 20, 2025.
