I recently caught up on Reacher, after my dad and every other middle-aged man I know had been recommending it for years, and it lived up to the hype. The action is wonderfully brutal, the mystery plots are twisty and engaging, and Alan Ritchson carries every episode on his massive, rock-hard shoulders. The first time I heard Ritchson’s name, he was being fan-cast in the role of Batman.
James Gunn’s DC Universe needs its own Bruce Wayne, separate from Robert Pattinson’s The Batman series, and Ritchson is one of the names getting floated around for the role, along with Brandon Sklenar. After watching Reacher, it’s obvious why he’s such a popular choice to play the Dark Knight, because Jack Reacher is basically Batman without a mask. Reacher is a vigilante going back and forth between local law enforcement and underground criminal contacts to enforce his own brutish brand of justice — he’s just like Batman, except he doesn’t hide his face, and he doesn’t stay in one place.
Obviously, there are other differences between Batman and Reacher. Reacher isn’t a billionaire; he’s an ex-military cop who buys his clothes at thrift stores. Reacher doesn’t have a huge manor overlooking his hometown; he’s a drifter who never stays in one town for more than a few weeks. But the core elements are the same: they’re both badasses who don’t like bullies and use their bone-breaking strength to protect the little guy.
A lot of DC fans are hoping they’ll get to see Ritchson don the cowl on the big screen, but he’s already been playing Batman for the past four years. If you want to see Ritchson as a musclebound crimefighter serving up vigilante justice everywhere he turns, you just need to watch the last three seasons of Reacher on Prime Video.
Would Alan Ritchson Make A Good Batman?
Ritchson is a popular choice to play Batman. Gunn has spoken publicly about being a fan of Ritchson’s, and Ritchson has spoken publicly — most recently in an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast — about having met with DC Studios about potential roles. But would he actually make a good Batman?
He’s certainly got the physicality to play Batman (he’s almost closer to the Absolute Batman physique than classic Batman), and he’s got the jaw to make the cowl work. Reacher’s fight with Paulie in the season 3 finale was basically a perfect Batman v. Bane fight, but without the costumes. There’s no question that Ritchson is a good physical match for the Caped Crusader, but he might not quite have the right demeanor for brooding, tortured Bruce Wayne.
A great Batman actor doesn’t just have to look good in the Batsuit and be able to convincingly wipe out a room full of thugs; they also have to capture the deeply broken human being who decided to put on bat ears and go after street gangs. The best Batman actors don’t just play Bruce as a mopey billionaire; they really interrogate the kind of disturbed psyche that would come up with the idea to dress up as a bat and fight crime. Pattinson doesn’t necessarily have a Batman body, but he nailed the sad, lonely, awkward weirdo hiding behind the mask, and I don’t know if Ritchson could do that.
There are a few moments in Reacher where Ritchson is required to be vulnerable, and he always does a fine job with those scenes, but nothing on the level of the intense psychological torment that Bruce Wayne grapples with daily. Ritchson is perfect for Batman but not for Bruce, and Reacher has proven to be the perfect middle ground.
