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Alan Ritchson says Reacher novel adaptation was blocked after Trump re-election

Actor claims plans for 'Die Trying' were approved until 'someone got re-elected,' prompting White House response.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
Jasper Savage/Prime

What this story says

  • Actor Alan Ritchson said a planned adaptation of Lee Child's novel 'Die Trying' for the 'Reacher' series was approved but later cancelled.
  • Ritchson attributed the cancellation to 'someone got re-elected,' a comment widely interpreted as referring to Donald Trump.
  • The novel 'Die Trying' features Jack Reacher confronting a white supremacist militia.
  • White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson issued a statement responding to Ritchson's comment.

Who covered it

Left 55%(12)Centre 27%(6)Right 18%(4)

Percentages are shares of the 22 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 2 of the 24 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

72/100

Craft

77/100

Hype

30/100

24 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 4 of the 22 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

Actor Alan Ritchson stated that plans to adapt Lee Child's novel 'Die Trying' for the Prime Video series 'Reacher' were approved but subsequently halted. Ritchson made the comment on Threads, responding to a fan who expressed a desire for a season based on the book, which involves Jack Reacher confronting a white supremacist militia. Ritchson wrote, 'I had it approved until someone got re-elected.'

While Ritchson did not name the individual, his past criticisms of Donald Trump and fan interpretations suggest the comment refers to Trump's re-election. The novel 'Die Trying,' published in 1998, follows Jack Reacher and a politician's daughter who are abducted by a radical militia for political leverage. Season 4 of 'Reacher' premiered in August 2026, and the show was renewed for a fifth season prior to the fourth season's debut.

White House response

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson issued a public statement in response to Ritchson's comment. Jackson stated, 'Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.'

What the coverage left out

None of the left-rated, centre-rated, or right-rated reports below mention the White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson's statement that 'President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.'

Coverage settled. We checked this 14 times and stopped on 26 Sept 2026, 05:00. The figures above are what it finished at.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

Credit: Prime Video
Just JaredCentre

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

12 rated outlets

  • Variety led on Ritchson’s claim that a planned adaptation of Lee Child’s 1998 novel “Die Trying” was halted after a re‑election, referring to “someone got re‑elected”. The Blast led on the same comment and noted the story pits Reacher against a white supremacist militia. The Wrap and other left‑rated outlets also led on the connection between the re‑election and the cancelled plot.
  • Variety reproduced Ritchson’s Threads post and quoted his description of the novel as his favourite. It also included his earlier podcast remarks criticising Trump and a response from White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson. The Blast reproduced the Threads exchange but did not name Trump, instead suggesting the re‑election reference pointed to him.
  • Only Variety’s full report mentioned viewership figures for season 4 and the renewal of season 5; the digests from the other left outlets omitted those statistics. None of the digests included the White House spokeswoman’s statement, which appeared only in Variety’s article.

Centre

6 rated outlets

  • Three centre-rated reports focused on Ritchson's comment about the cancelled season. Just Jared and Dark Horizons noted that Ritchson blamed a Presidential re-election for the season being scrapped, with Just Jared adding that fans believe Trump is the individual referenced. FandomWire's digest highlighted that Ritchson's favourite book, 'Die Trying,' featuring a 'disturbingly racist villain,' came closer to adaptation than fans knew.

Right

4 rated outlets

  • The single right-rated report, The News, stated that Alan Ritchson revealed why a 'Reacher' season was cancelled. The digest mentioned that the season was based on Lee Child's novel 'Die Trying' and was approved but ultimately nixed.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Alan Ritchson says Reacher novel adaptation was blocked after Trump…?
Of the 22 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 55% are rated left, 27% are rated centre, 18% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 24. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Alan Ritchson says Reacher novel adaptation was blocked after Trump… left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 22 rated outlets on this story, 55% are rated left, 27% are rated centre, 18% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Alan Ritchson says Reacher novel adaptation was blocked after Trump… biased?
Alan Ritchson says Reacher novel adaptation was blocked after Trump re-election is one event reported by 24 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Alan Ritchson says Reacher novel adaptation was blocked after Trump…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Alan Ritchson says Reacher novel adaptation was blocked after Trump…?
24 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What did Alan Ritchson say about a planned Reacher season?
Alan Ritchson stated on Threads that a planned adaptation of Lee Child's novel 'Die Trying' for the 'Reacher' series was approved but later cancelled. He attributed the cancellation to 'someone got re-elected.'
Which novel was Alan Ritchson referring to?
Ritchson was referring to Lee Child's novel 'Die Trying,' which features Jack Reacher confronting a white supremacist militia. Ritchson described it as his 'favorite book.'
Who is widely understood to be the 'someone' Ritchson mentioned?
Although Ritchson did not name the individual, his past criticisms of Donald Trump and fan interpretations of his comment suggest it refers to Trump's re-election.
Did the White House respond to Ritchson's comment?
Yes, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson issued a public statement responding to Ritchson's comment. She stated that President Trump has said he has been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.

Read it at the source

24 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

12
Show 4 more

Centre

6

Right

4

Not rated

2

How did this read?

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Alan Ritchson on Reacher adaptation | MediaBias News