Reacher's Biggest Rival Officially Returns in 2027

Lade Omotade is a News and Features Author at Collider, covering everything from casting announcements and streaming trends to behind-the-scenes stories and the cultural impact of today’s biggest film and TV franchises. Since joining the team in 2024, she has written more than 1,000 news stories, with her work also cited by outlets like AOL and IMDb.

It’s been about two months since Reacher wrapped its fourth season on Prime Video, and Season 5 is closer than ever, with production scheduled for this year. Inspired by Lee Child’s acclaimed novels, Reacher is one of television’s best action thrillers, earning consistently high critical praise across all four seasons, as reflected on Rotten Tomatoes. On the review aggregator, no season scores below 92%, with Seasons 2 and 3 tied for the highest rating at 98%.

Earlier in May, the detective drama starring Alan Ritchson was renewed for a fifth season, adapting Child’s 2015 novel Make Me. It then received a sixth-season renewal in September. Neither season has a premiere date yet, leaving fans eager for a Reacher Season 5 update, especially given what happens in the book. Fortunately, there’s something even more exciting to pass the time: fans can check out this similarly thrilling novel series, which shares elements with the Jack Reacher books, including its focus on hyper-competent loners.

Written by Gregg Hurwitz, the Orphan X series is a widely recognized action-thriller series that launched in 2016 with the first book of the same title. The series currently has 11 main books, with a 12th scheduled to release soon, as recently announced. Titled Last Man Standing, the 12th book debuts on February 9, 2027, just a year after its predecessor, Antihero, which debuted in February this year. Pre-orders for Last Man Standing are currently up on Amazon.

• He reads ground the way other people read a room.
• He will stand between you and the worst of it without discussing it.
• He says almost nothing, and never the wrong thing.

• The 1982 original came from David Morrell’s 1972 novel, which ends very differently.
• Stallone cut most of his own dialogue in the edit to make the character nearly silent.
• Five films across thirty-seven years, from 1982 to the fifth in 2019.

• He is better in the room than he is on paper, and he is excellent on paper.
• He will not explain the plan, and the plan will work.
• He treats charm as a tool, and it is a remarkably effective one.

• Eon has made twenty-five Bond films since Dr. No in 1962, across six actors.
• Denis Villeneuve is directing the next one for Amazon MGM, which took creative control in
  2025.
• The search for the new 007 was still running through 2026, with screen tests under way.

• He has read the thing nobody else thought to read.
• He will risk the whole plan for the artifact, and be right about half the time.
• He improvises better than most people prepare.

• The Cairo swordsman scene was improvised on the day because Harrison Ford had dysentery.
• Raiders was filmed in about 73 days, which was fast even in 1981.
• Dial of Destiny in 2023 was Ford’s fifth and last outing, at the age of eighty.

• He turns whatever is in the room to his advantage.
• He is funniest when things are at their worst.
• He has never once agreed that it is over.

• Die Hard came from Roderick Thorp’s novel Nothing Lasts Forever, a sequel to a book
  filmed in 1968.
• Nakatomi Plaza is Fox Plaza, which was the studio’s own headquarters at the time.
• Bruce Willis was a television comedy actor then, and a long way down the casting list.

• He takes the risk himself rather than assigning it.
• He is three moves ahead and will not say which three.
• He treats your survival as the actual objective.

• Cruise hung off the side of an Airbus A400M at a thousand feet for the opening of Rogue
  Nation.
• The HALO jump in Fallout took 106 takes, filmed at dusk for the light.
• The Final Reckoning in 2025 was the eighth film, and was sold as the last.

‘Reacher’s Biggest Rival Is Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X

Orphan X follows Evan Smoak, a former black-ops government assassin known as Orphan X, who leaves the program to become the “Nowhere Man,” helping people with nowhere else to turn. All they have to do is dial his encrypted line. Like the Reacher books, the story features a protagonist with a strong personal moral code and an unmatched ability to handle any threat alone. He can step into desperate situations where law enforcement can’t or won’t help, solve the problem, and deliver vigilante justice.

The latest Orphan X book, Last Man Standing, continues Evan’s journey and this time, he has more to lose. As the synopsis teases, everything changes when Brooke Hawthorne dials the number. A young woman is held captive and forced into a scheme so dark it nearly defies belief. The men guarding her are professionals, and the operation behind them is even worse. Getting Brooke out is only the beginning. The moment Evan acts, he draws the attention of Boz, the cold, meticulous architect pulling every string, who sees the Nowhere Man as an unacceptable threat.

Last Man Standing launches next February. Pre-order yours now on Amazon and watch Reacher on Prime Video.