“Reacher” may have made Alan Ritchson a major star, but the actor was already quite busy long before the Prime Video series. Even outside of the major roles on this list, he’s landed a series of charming one-off roles. He starred in the “Black Mirror” episode “Nosedive,” as the handsome, potentially closeted groom of the main character’s childhood frenemy; played Jess’ (Zooey Deschanel) love interest, Matt, in Season 4 of “New Girl;” and a talking cow in an oddly psychedelic episode of the Nickelodeon series “Fred.”
Ritchson may most often get cast as stoic tough guys, but his past roles prove that he has an impressively wide range. All that said, none of those television appearances quite compare to the five TV shows on this list. The first four entries are open to debate, but no true Ritchson fan will question the number one pick.
5. Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Ritchson is only in one episode of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” but what an episode it was. In Season 6’s “Hitchcock and Scully,” Ritchson plays a younger Scully back in the ’80s during the prime of his youth. If you’re familiar with old Scully (Joel McKinnon Miller), you know how insane this casting choice is. What’s funnier is that the episode’s cold open takes its time before revealing Ritchson’s identity, making for an amazingly built-up punchline delivered right before the opening credits hit.
Ritchson hasn’t spoken much about this role, presumably because it’s fairly brief and doesn’t really show a new side to his acting chops. Everyone knows he can play a cool tough guy, and that’s exactly who Young Scully is. Still, Ritchson is used to great comedic effect here; He’s even funnier when he lets tiny hints of future Scully shine through in his performance.
4. Smallville
Get lost, Jason Momoa: Alan Ritchson is the real Aquaman as far as “Smallville” fans are concerned. In four episodes throughout the back half of the show, the star played a young Arthur Curry. He later described the role to the Happy Sad Confused podcast as his first big break, and said his performance was driven by “pure instincts” due to his total lack of acting expertise at the time.
Ritchson also revealed the role taught him a harsh lesson about Hollywood, because the show’s network led him to think he was getting his own spin-off series but failed to follow through. He explained that, due in part to the change in the show’s network from The WB to The CW, he was suddenly “yanked” from the “Aquaman” spin-off project. The “Aquaman” pilot episode would be produced without Ritchson (and then get scrapped).
“Nothing is a sure thing in this business,” Ritchson explained. “I learned to hold so loosely to every opportunity that came, to where I would never get too excited … It just helps me navigate this business in a more grounded way. And I learned that right out of the gate with a real tough loss.” Ritchson would ultimately have to wait a while longer before he could become a true star, but “Smallville” was his first step down that road.
3. Blood Drive
In 2017, Ritchson starred in the only season of SYFY’s “Blood Drive,” a gory, fast-paced show about a “Mad Max”-style American apocalypse. The series was never a hit and was sadly canceled after just one season, even though showrunner James Roland had some ambitious plans for Seasons 2 and 3. Ritchson’s character, Arthur Bailey, is awfully similar to his later “Reacher” role, in that he’s a hyper-competent guy with a strong moral code.
“He wants so badly to do the right thing and be different and fight evil with good,” Ritchson explained in a 2017 Daily Dead interview. “You put somebody like that in a world where he’s already a deer in headlights and it sets up a lot of great, fun action and conflict, and that’s a ton of fun to play.” He recalled the show as another major learning experience for him, as it was his first time leading a TV series. In a 2024 interview with MovieZine, Ritchson explained how the series helped him let go of some of his “control freak” tendencies, which allowed him to adapt well to his later “Reacher” lead role.
2. Titans
Alan Ritchson played recurring character Hank Hall, a hawk-themed superhero who shows up in “Titans.” While speaking to Collider, he recalled being sold on the part by his agent, who told him, “It’s nothing like the CW. Nobody has done anything like this … We feel like you are the only guy who can do this vigilante, alcoholic, pill-popping hothead.”
Hank was written out of the show after Season 3. Ritchson wasn’t too upset, however. In an interview with EW, he said he thought the show’s decision to cut down its cast (largely for budget reasons) was for the best: “I think the show has improved significantly in the third season because the storylines have been focused, the cast has been tightened and slimmed down, and we’re now getting the best of what ‘Titans’ can do.”
“Titans” is a particularly important role for Ritchson since it introduced him to showrunner Greg Walker, a friend of “Reacher” showrunner Nick Santora. “When Don Granger and Nick Santora are investigating the possible Reachers, and they start making phone calls to see what kind of guy I am, who do they call? They call Greg Walker,” he told MovieZine. “And I find out later that Greg Walker was singing my praises.”
1. Blue Mountain State
If you’ve seen “Blue Mountain State,” you already knew it was making the top of this list. For 39 episodes, Ritchson played the hyper, intense, fiercely dedicated football team captain Thad Castle. The role is remarkably undignified for the man who would one day play Jack Reacher; Thad is often the butt of the show’s jokes, and he’s famous for his tendency to switch into a high-pitched scream whenever he gets upset. It’s hilarious. Thad isn’t the show’s main character, but he is its standout, so much so that the series’ only spin-off movie is called “Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland.”
By the time it ended, the writers fully understood that Thad was their main star, but he wasn’t planned to end up that way. In a 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ritchson explained how he intentionally tried to “steal every scene and fill every frame” in an effort to protect his character from being written off. “I would get yelled at all the time, and they would say, ‘Just f***ing sit still,'” Ritchson recalled. But by the second season, the situation had changed: “All the conflict and tension and pain I was experiencing from getting yelled at paid off because it was right for the audience, which loved how crazy I was.”