Downtown Millbrook has been transformed into small-town U.S.A. for the filming of the popular action-thriller series Reacher, based on the best-selling books by British author Lee Child.
Filming is underway for the third season of the series starring Alan Ritchson as the titular character Jack Reacher, a brawny yet astute former military policeman who becomes a drifter after leaving the army and uses his expertise and physical strength and combat skills to solve crimes and right wrongs.
King Street between Tupper and Union will be closed to vehicular traffic during the filming, which began on Tuesday (April 23) and will wrap on Thursday.
Millbrook is standing in for a town in Maine during an episode of the third season of the Amazon Prime Video series, which is based on Child’s 2003 novel Persuader.
The seventh book in the series, Persuader finds Reacher working covertly with Susan Duff of the Drug Enforcement Administration to bring down Zachary Beck, a businessman who lives on the coast of Maine and is suspected of smuggling drugs under the pretext of trading in rugs, and to safely retrieve an undercover DEA agent who appears to have been discovered and kidnapped by Beck’s henchmen.
But Reacher’s primary motivation is more personal. He wants to exact revenge on Beck’s boss, a former military intelligence agent named Francis Xavier Quinn who Reacher thought he had killed 10 years earlier after Quinn brutally mutilated and murdered Dominique Kohl, a rising star in the military police under Reacher’s command.
VIDEO: Filming of “Reacher” fight scene in Millbrook
It’s unknown how closely the third season will follow the plot of the book. While the first season of Reacher — which included a non-speaking role by Peterborough actor Wyatt Lamoureux — was a faithful adaptation of Child’s 1997 debut Killing Floor, the second season based on 2007’s Bad Luck and Trouble took some liberties with that book’s plot and characters.
However, casting has been announced for most of the major characters who appear in the book, including Anthony Michael Hall as Zachary Beck, Johnny Berchtold as Beck’s son Richard, Sonya Cassidy as Susan Duff, and Brian Tee as Quinn.
One significant character in the book whose casting has not yet been announced is Paul “Paulie” Masserella, one of Quinn’s henchman who is even taller and more muscular than Reacher. Casting may be a challenge as Ritchson has continued to bulk up to physically embody Child’s protagonist — the muscular 6’2″ actor reportedly broke 240 pounds for season two of Reacher. In the two movies based on Child’s books, Reacher was played by the relatively diminutive Tom Cruise, to the consternation of many fans of the books.
Update: on May 23, 2024, it was announced that Dutch bodybuilder and actor Olivier Richters has been cast as Paulie. Nicknamed “The Dutch Giant,” Richters is 7’2″ and weighs 350 pounds.
The filming of the Reacher episode in Millbrook is only the latest example of the picturesque town’s popularity as a location in the film and television industry.
Films shot in Millbrook include 2003’s The Music Man starring Matthew Broderick, David Cronenberg’s 2005 film A History of Violence, and 2009’s Let It Snow, among others. Along with Reacher on Amazon Prime Video, scenes have been shot in Millbrook for the Netflix series Jupiter’s Legacy (2020) and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2021), as well as for the Canadian TV series Murdoch Mysteries and Anne with an E.
While no release date has been set for season three of Reacher, speculation is the season may premiere on Amazon Prime Video as early as December or as late as February 2025.
