So it was no surprise that the former Titans‘ Hawk pounced on a fan’s recent Threads lament that his successful Reacher series adaptation of author Lee Child’s novel, Die Trying, hasn’t yet been brought to the screen. In that 1998 entry in Child’s ongoing chronicle of the adventures of the helpful man-mountain, Jack finds himself kidnapped (bad move) alongside the FBI agent daughter of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (worse move) by some white supremacist militia types (oh, such a bad move) until he, in typical Jack Reacher fashion, just beats the ever-living hell out of the neo-Nazi punks. (Their leader carries the truly stellar racist yahoo name, Beau Borken, just to put that out there.)
For Ritchson, such a cathartic tale of Nazi-bashing was ripe for the adapting, although, in his response to the fan’s query, the actor succinctly replied only, “My favorite book. Fun fact: I had it approved until someone got re-elected.”
Now, no one is suggesting that Donald Trump used the apparently uncheck-able powers of his regime to once again pressure a media company to change its programming decisions. And nobody whatsoever (especially not the jacked young Norm Scully) is overtly citing Amazon head Jeff Bezos’ close ties to Donald Trump as having anything to do with this incendiary tale’s push back down the potential Reacher story ladder. But Ritchson’s comment does hint that perhaps some preemptive caution was exercised by showrunner Nick Santora so as not to rile up powerful American Republicans who, for some reason, might get upset at the sight of a cadre of racist right-wing insurrectionists plotting to create their own fascist ethno-state.
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