'Reacher' Season 2 cast wishes every set was like the Prime Video hit, even with Toronto winter weather
"It's a hard show. It's a lot of stunts. It's shot in the winter in Toronto, you're up against it," Serinda Swan said
The Prime Video action-crime series Reacher is officially back for Season 2, with Alan Ritchson as the title character, and the show's stars have revealed what it's really like to film such an intense series.
As series newcomer Serinda Swan shared, the Toronto weather in the winter months didn't help the challenges of the show, but the cast really bonded, creating a great atmosphere on set.
"It's a hard show. It's a lot of stunts. It's shot in the winter in Toronto, you're up against it," Swan told Yahoo Canada. "But we found ways to laugh, whether it was like chess competitions or poker, or going into archery or baking or pasta dinner dates on Saturdays. We bonded together."
Watch Reacher Season 2 on Prime Video with a 30-day free trial
What happens in 'Reacher' Season 2
Fans of the first season of Reacher will be happy to see a familiar tone for Season 2, but with a new host of problems Jack Reacher is facing with some old friends.
The drama is set when a member of Reacher's former U.S. Army unit, the 110th MP Special Investigations, Calvin Franz (Luke Bilyk), has died. Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) needs Reacher's help to figure out what happened to Franz.
They determine that there seems to be a murderer targeting individuals from their former unit, with Reacher and Neagley reconnecting with Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan) and David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos) to figure our what's happening, who the murderer is and how to stop them.
But the early episodes of Reacher Season 2 also tease a possible budding romance between Reacher and Dixon.
"I think Karla just has a really big, beautiful heart and is very emotionally intelligent, and she just watches him," Swan said. "There's nothing she wants to change or do, she gives him the space and allows him to do what he wants, and she sometimes does what she wants, and then, it's a great season."
'I wish that every set was like that'
Much of Season 2 really depends on the audience believing that Reacher, Neagley, Dixon and O’Donnell have a real connection and a significant past that has developed this bond. It's something the actors highlighted as being a natural camaraderie on set.
"Alan and I have pretty good chemistry as it is, we have a great working relationship, we are very efficient and very impatient in the way that we generally approach the work," Maria Sten said. "So it's nice to be able to tag team, and our partnership is quite easy in that way."
"I like to establish a rapport with whoever I get to work with on a show and so when these guys came around, after the table read, I reached out to Serinda and said, 'Hey do you want to grab lunch?' And we did and we totally just hit it off right away. I think it was very easy for all of us to just fall into these characters and those dynamics. I think it's just really solid casting, in terms of who's going to mesh, because you just never know, it's a crapshoot. I think we just instantly fell into that kind of dynamic, which was lucky."
Watch Reacher Season 2 on Prime Video with a 30-day free trial
Shaun Sipos echoed Sten's comments, saying it was a "seamless process" to come onto this cast.
"That's a huge thing when you're trying to connect with somebody, because most of the time, if people have ego and they want to be bullies, ... and they're being controlled by insecurities and whatnot, it's hard to establish a connection," Sipos said. "If you don't have a connection with these characters within them, you're kind of dead in the water and fortunately, no one on this cast had any of those sorts of issues."
"If they did, they certainly didn't let them control them. So it was a it's been an amazing experience and I wish that every set was like that."
Swan said that while it's necessary to bond as characters for their job, it's not particularly essential in their personal lives off-screen, but that connection was still there when the cameras weren't rolling.
"It was amazing to be able to have both blend, and that obviously helps with chemistry, that obviously helps with building a character," Swan said.
Where to watch 'Reacher'
Reacher Season 2 is available to watch on Prime Video, with new episodes on Fridays.
Catch up on all episodes in Season 1 of Reacher on the streaming site as well.
