The upcoming Reacher spinoff Neagley has one major advantage over Alan Ritchson’s iconic Prime Video show, despite the earlier hit’s popularity. In many ways, Reacher’s status as the number one Dad TV show is down to its comparatively predictable plotting. Like an ultra-violent spin on MacGyver, Prime Video’s Lee Child adaptation always follows a reliable formula.

Alan Ritchson’s hulking title character, a fearless military veteran turned drifter, shows up in a new town or city, unintentionally gets tangled up with a new criminal enterprise, corrupt police force, or illegal organization, and must use his unique skills to survive and defeat the villains. This winning formula works, but Reacher’s spinoff, Neagley, could make it even better.

Reacher’s Spinoff Neagley Can Go In A Totally Different Direction

While each season of Reacher is based on one of the books in British author Lee Child’s ongoing novel series, Neagley has more creative freedom to tell a completely new, original, and, crucially, unpredictable story. Maria Sten’s eponymous Neagley is not that big of a presence in the books, which gives the creators a lot more leeway with the character.

Prime’s Reacher series is somewhat predictable for viewers who have read every book in Child’s series, but its spinoff won’t share this issue. While Ritchson’s Reacher will appear in Neagley, the show is firmly the story of Sten’s heroine, with the synopsis of the upcoming spinoff confirming that its plot will see her investigate the suspicious death of an old friend.

Reacher’s Source Material Makes Prime Video’s Action Thriller More Predictable Than Neagley

This is great news, as the brief synopsis proves that Neagley will take the best elements of the winning Reacher formula and inject some more uncertainty into them. Like Reacher, Neagley ends up embroiled in a conspiracy through no fault of her own, solely because she refuses to leave an injustice alone.

However, unlike Reacher, Neagley doesn’t have any source material for viewers to speed read if they want to find out the show’s ending early. Without any Child novels to adapt, the show is free to take Sten’s character in a bold new direction, meaning the audience won’t know what to expect from each new episode.

Thus, although the relative predictability of Reacher is part of the action thriller’s charm, its spinoff will have something new to offer viewers. Much like Prime Video’s Cross took the show’s formula and blended it with the police procedural format, the upcoming official spinoff Neagley can now twist Reacher‘s winning setup into something equally fresh and exciting.

Release Date

February 3, 2022

Network

Prime Video

Showrunner

Nick Santora

Directors

Omar Madha, Carol Banker, Julian Holmes, Lin Oeding, M.J. Bassett, Norberto Barba, Stephen Surjik, Thomas Vincent

Writers

Cait Duffy