Warning: Major spoilers for Reacher season 3, episode 8 “Unfinished Business” below!Reacherseason 3 confirms that creator Lee Child is done making surprise cameos. On paper,Lee Child’sJack Reacherbooksare an incredibly unlikely success story. The British author created the hulking drifter after being unexpectedly fired from his job with UK channel ITV during the 1990s, and he decided to write a book in the aftermath. 30 novels, two movies, and three TV seasons later, Child’s decision clearly paid off. The success of Amazon’s adaptation has madeReacheras popular as ever, and evenMaria Sten’s Neagley is getting her own spinoff.
Reacherseason 3 adaptsPersuader, where Alan Ritchson’s title character goes undercover with a gunrunner.Persuaderis one of the best books in the series, as evidenced by the third season’s stellar reviews and streaming ratings. Any fans expecting surprise cameos by fan favorites like Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin) or Roscoe (Willa Fitzgerald) in the finale “Unfinished Business” will be let down, butit’s the absence of a Lee Child cameo that’s the biggest disappointment.
Prime Video’s Upcoming Neagley Spinoff Will Do 1 Thing Jack Reacher Has Avoided For 3 Seasons
The latest episode of Reacher featured a great scene for Neagley that also underlines how her upcoming spinoff will differ from the main series.
Reacher Season 3 Confirms Author Lee Child Is Done Making Surprise Cameos
Child appeared in both of the Tom Cruise movies and Reacher season 1
Reacherseason 3 was a more contained outing than the second series, featuring a smaller cast of characters and a more claustrophobic setting. Even with this limitation in mind, it feels like the show could have squeezed in a Child appearance in somewhere. Sadly,it looks like Lee Child is done making cameos in the adaptations of his work. He appeared in both Tom Cruise movies, where he played a police officer and a TSA agent, respectively.
Lee Child’s absence from Reacher season 3 suggests the author might just be finished making his little Alfred Hitchcock-style cameos…
In the finale ofReacherseason 1, Child played a man who walks past Ritchson’s Reacher in a diner. Child apparently didn’t appear in the second season (which adaptedBad Luck and Trouble) due to scheduling conflicts. His absence from season 3 suggests the author might just be finished making his little Alfred Hitchcock-style cameos. It should be noted thatChild has largely stepped away from writing the books too, having handed the reins to his brother, Andrew Child.
Reacher Season 3 Missed A Perfect Cameo Opportunity For Lee Child
It could have played into Lee Child’s own coffee addiction
There’s a funny scene inReacherseason 3’s second episode, “Truckin,” where Jack has to stall for as long as possible. To this end, he pulls into a gas station to get coffee while his driver, Ángel Dole (Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz), waits outside. Once inside, Reacher just stands still holding the coffee pot, while a bemused attendant watches from behind the counter.This attendant would have been the perfect Lee Child cameo forReacherseason 3, requiring no dialogue and an incredulous expression.
It also would have played into Child’s own coffee addiction too, which is a habit he’s passed to his literary creation. It wasn’t meant to be, unfortunately. Maybe there was something that again prevented Lee Child from cameoing on the latest season ofReacher, and he’s still open to the occasional guest role. Having missed two series and given the Amazon series his stamp of approval, perhaps the author feels it’s time to step back from it.
Reacher
Cast
Reacher follows Jack Reacher, a former military police investigator, as he navigates civilian life. Without a phone and carrying minimal belongings, Reacher drifts across the country, experiencing the nation he once served, and encounters intriguing challenges along the way.
Reacher - Season 3
Based on Lee Child’s novel ‘Persuader,’ Season 3 finds Reacher tangled up in a DEA investigation of an import business owned by Zachary Beck. As is often the case, Reacher has a personal stake in the investigation, when he realizes someone he investigated years ago for a crime during his time in the Army has resurfaced in connection to Beck’s operation. To unravel what’s happening in Beck’s business, the DEA collaborates with Reacher and attempts to send him in undercover to help rescue another undercover DEA informant and put a stop to Beck’s business practices.
