If you thought Jack Reacher was a man mountain, let us introduce you to man planet Olivier Richters

REACHER, left: Alan Ritchson, ‘Pie’, (Season 1, ep. 108, aired Feb. 4, 2022). photo: ©Amazon / Courtesy Everett Collection©Amazon/Courtesy Everett Collec

When Prime Video’s riotous adaptation of Lee Child’s wildly popular Reacher book series first came out, much was made of the size of Jack Reacher. Played by American star Alan Ritchson, the ex-soldier turned baddie destroyer was, unlike Tom Cruise’s iteration, pretty much as described in the books: “Extremely tall, extremely broad” with “Hands the size of dinner plates.”

Even Ritchson himself has commented on the ways in which he initially wrecked his own body in order to physically transform for the role. “I didn’t take steroids, I didn’t take testosterone. There was only one way to get where I needed to be and that was hard work,” he told British GQ last year. “I fucking wrecked my body, dude. It was too much. I didn’t have time to heal.”

But if you thought Reacher was the biggest a man could get without being, I guess, a fictional superhero, then think again. Because, as it turns out, the villain of Reacher season 3 is even bigger than the man himself. Let us introduce you to man planet Paulie, played by Olivier Richters, the world’s tallest bodybuilder, nicknamed The Dutch Giant.

I never thought I’d be scared for Ritchson. But just look at Ritchers – the guy, who is proudly 7″2, with arms the size of the United Kingdom – can barely fit into an aeroplane seat. He could probably crush a regular guy’s head between his thumb and forefinger with the ease of a hippo biting down on a watermelon.

He makes The Rock look like he should be called The Grain of Sand. If I was to ever come across Richters IRL, he’d probably mistake me for a fly. How Reacher is going to get out of this one remains to be seen.

While details of Reacher season 3 are still relatively thin on the ground, we do know that Paulie will play one of Zachary Beck’s bodyguards (fans of the Lee Childs books will know Beck, played by The Breakfast Club‘s Anthony Michael Hall in the upcoming season, is the owner of a rug import company suspected to be a cover for something much more nefarious operation).

Elsewhere on the cast thus far are Brian Tee (who plays a “physically imposing and intimidating” lieutenant colonel investigated by Reacher in the past), Johnny Berchtold (Beck’s son), Roberto Montesinos (a “college student who lost his mother when he was very young”) and Daniel David Stewart (“a rookie DEA agent who is fresh-faced and new to the job”).

Regardless of who’s in the cast, Paulie will tower above all of them, like the Incredible Hulk playing a casual game of marbles. For season 3, it’s clear that Reacher will need to use more than just his lorry-sized fists to fight this particular bad guy.