This post was published on 5/23 and republished on 5/25.
Reacher, known for starring a man who is famously large, has now cast someone even larger.
That is part of the adaptation of the book Persuader, which will be the basis for season 3. In that book, Reacher meets Zachary Beck, played by Anthony Michael Hall, who employs a “deranged bodybuilder bodyguard” named Paulie.
Here’s how Paulie is described in the book:
“He was a very big guy. I stand six feet five inches tall and I have to center myself quite carefully to walk through a standard thirty-inch doorway. This guy was at least six inches taller than me and probably ten inches wider across the shoulders. He probably outweighed me by two hundred pounds. Maybe by more.”
And I mean, if you’ve seen Reacher, you know how big Alan Ritchson looks in the role, so this guy is supposed to be what, 6’11, 450 pounds, at least? Well uh, about that.
The show has cast Olivier Richters, nicknamed “The Dutch Giant,” because well:
Richters is a bodybuilder and actor, and in real life is 7’2 and 353 pounds. So he’s not going to outweigh Ritchson by 200 pounds, but he’s going to be way, way taller. You also may not know that as jacked as Ritchson is in the show, he’s actually 6’3, tall but not enormous, and he often looks bigger due to the way the show is shot.
Obviously, without knowing what happens in the book, this is going to result in one hell of an epic fight scene (or two, or three) during the season. I do hope that the choreography improves from season 2, where it was much better in season 1. I think it would help if Reacher no longer has a “team” that’s also all fighting at the same time.
You have definitely seen Richters as “extremely scary big guy” in a bunch of movies. He was in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Black Widow. The King’s Man, Miami Heat and now this may end up being his highest profile role. I’m having flashbacks to real-life strongman Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson back when he was The Mountain in Game of Thrones. And guess what? This guy is four inches taller.
Really looking forward to seeing Richters in action here in season 3, which does not have a release date yet, but as the cast comes together, hopefully we know more soon.
Update (5/25): If you wanted to know more about Richters and how he became an actor, there’s a really interesting documentary on his journey that is almost an hour long and worth checking out. It’s got almost a million views on Twitter and you can see it below:
Some interesting facts about Richters:
- When he was 14 he was already 6 foot 6 and reached h is full 7 foot 2 height by the time he was 19.
- He called his height a “curse” when he was younger given all the challenges it posed, but he became a bodybuilder which greatly helped with his perception of himself.
- In a 2018 interview, he revealed that he had gained 154 pounds in eight years (meaning he was “only” about 200 back then) by eating 6,4000 calories a day broken up into eight different meals.
Just out of curiosity, I looked up how many calories Reacher’s Alan Richtson eats in a day, and it’s 4,000. Here’s him on his diet and exercise regimen talking to Men’s Health:
“I eat whatever the hell I want, and I’m not kidding,” he says. “I eat the healthiest when I’m on set, because I have somebody cooking for me.”
“Every time I think my cardio is on point, I go do a little fight training and I get gassed in three minutes and realize I’m not even close to what I should be.” He adds that he only does 20 or 30 minutes of a workout but goes extremely hard during that time.
He also says he wants 22 seasons of Reacher and to still be playing the character when he’s 100. Given how vast the source material is, at least that many seasons is not out of possibility, to be sure.
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