Remember When Reachers Alan Ritchson Was Aquaman?

The Big Picture

• Alan Ritchson's portrayal of Aquaman in Smallville marked his first major role and showcased his strength and confidence as an actor.
• Despite not getting his own Aquaman spinoff due to network changes, Ritchson continued his career with roles in shows like Blue Mountain State and Titans , where he showcased his evolved acting talents.
• Ritchson's casting as Jack Reacher in Prime Video's series Reacher is a satisfying choice for fans who felt that previous portrayals did not match the character's physicality, and he continues to rise in the entertainment industry with upcoming projects.

Prime Video’s Reacher was one of the best new shows of 2022, with a standout performance from its lead actor, Alan Ritchson. With Reacher having finished Season 2 and Season 3 already in production, Ritchson as an action star seems way overdue. To many, he’d seemingly come from nowhere to fill (out) the shoes originally worn by Tom Cruise in the character’s eponymous 2012 film and its 2016 sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Back Down. To others, however, Ritchson’s rise to prominence has been a long time coming. DC Comics fans, especially, have watched the actor with interest, remembering his first speaking role as none other than Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, in the hit CW drama, Smallville.

Smallville, created by Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, tells the tale of a young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) growing up in, well, Smallville. Premiering in October of 2001 on a network then known as the WB, the show ran for 10 seasons, airing 217 episodes and altering the course of superhero television for years to come. During its run, it featured so many familiar supporting characters that it’d actually be easier for fans to count those that didn’t appear (most notably a rich, winged-mammal-based hero and a Themyscirian princess). The show proved that not only could the actors carry a television show on their heroic shoulders, but also that the characters could hold the interest of viewers for years to come.

Smallville

A young Clark Kent struggles to find his place in the world as he learns to harness his alien powers for good and deals with the typical troubles of teenage life in Smallville, Kansas.

Alan Ritchson's 'Smallville' Performance Proved He Was a Star

Smallville’s first few seasons found Clark Kent facing off against a disposable villain of the week and undergoing any hero’s greatest crucible — high school. While that worked for a time, as the series continued and its characters grew, more substance was required to fill the runtime and progress the evolution of Superman’s mythos. That substance was mined from the pages of DC Comics, bringing in the many supporting characters of the imprint’s decades-long adventures. Many characters marked their first live-action appearances on Smallville, and that is the case with Arthur Curry’s Aquaman.

In Season 5, Episode 4, aptly titled “Aqua,” viewers got their first eyeful of Aquaman. Taking from his Golden and Silver Age appearance as a muscular blonde with orange clothes, Arthur Curry held something of the dangerous demeanor that had marked the character’s resurgence in the '90s. Finding an actor that could portray that clean-cut heroic nature with a hint of rebelliousness might have proved difficult had it not been for Ritchson, an unknown actor who had previously only been an American Idol contestant. Stepping into the orange swim trunks, Ritchson was a physically imposing match for Welling, emerging from the water with his broad shoulders and wide chest. His co-stars couldn’t believe that this was his first speaking role, as the actor conveyed such strength and confidence on camera. The episode was a record-breaker, and the executives at the WB took notice and greenlit an Aquaman spinoff almost immediately.

Ritchson had made quite a splash, and it seemed like every door was about to magically swing open for him, but timing, unfortunately, was not on his side. In January 2006, the WB network merged with the UPN network, forming the CW. This new entity saw new oversight, and the executives didn’t want a show spawned from a “backdoor pilot.” Suddenly, Ritchson wouldn’t have his own Aquaman show, though he did return to Smallville for three more episodes as the character. The executives instead cast a breakout soap opera star to play Aquaman — a young heartthrob named Justin Hartley. The pilot was shot and screened for the executives who ultimately passed on the whole endeavor. Recognizing a star on their hands with Hartley, Gough and Millar cast him as Oliver Queen in Smallville, making his first appearance in October of that year during the start of the show’s sixth season. Green Arrow would go on to appear in 72 episodes of Smallville, changing the trajectory of DC’s television presence forever. If you're playing six degrees of separation, then you'll find a very short line between Ritchson, Hartley, Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, and Jason Momoa.

Ritchson's Career Flourished With Roles on 'Blue Mountain State' and DC's 'Titans'

While DC was growing up on television, taking a more dark and mature approach with its Arrowverse, Ritchson was becoming an actor in demand in his own right. His work on Blue Mountain State established him as an affable comedy legend, a larger-than-life hulk who remained approachable while lumbering over his costars like a Titan. He reprised his role as Aquaman by voicing the character in the DCAU’s Justice League: The New Frontier in 2008, and when Smallville concluded its television run in May 2011, it seemed like his time as a DC superhero might've been over.

DC entered the streaming market in 2018 with DC Universe, a subscription service with original programming to entice its fans. Its flagship show was Titans, a rough and mature take on the Teen Titans series of comics and cartoons that had proven successful since its inception in the 1960s. The second episode of the series, premiering in October 2018, introduced two ancillary characters that became major breakouts — Hawk and Dove. Starring Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly, respectively, the very adult take on vigilantism proved to be an effective showcase for Ritchson’s patently evolved acting talents. The work he does on Titans is huge and heavy, and serves as something of an audition tape for a character as simultaneously nuanced and binary as Jack Reacher.

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Alan Ritchson Is an Unstoppable Force in Prime Video's 'Reacher'

Created by Lee Child in 1997, Jack Reacher is meant to be an “unstoppable force” on an unending quest for justice… and peach pie. Described as 6’5” and 250lbs of American military-trained muscle, Reacher is a force of nature — arrogant, calculating, and unbending. He has a hardline for doing the right thing and is never deterred. He is, essentially, a superhero in everything but name. While Tom Cruise did a fantastic job in the two Jack Reacher films, directed by Christopher McQuarrie and Edward Zwick respectively, he didn’t exactly match up to book readers’ expectations of the character’s physicality. While that can be dismissed easily as interpretation, it’s somewhat prickly when one considers that the character’s literary history spans more than 27 novels and several additional short stories.

A character of such legacy deserves more accurate casting, and it’s particularly satisfying to see Ritchson finally getting to headline a series of his own in Reacher after the prospect had been dashed before his eyes 16 years earlier. Though the stars didn’t align for Ritchson’s Aquaman to make a bigger splash back then, there is no cause to count the actor out for bigger and better heroic roles as time moves on. Especially as DC is restructuring its cinematic output, we may still see Ritchson once again suit up and soar.

Smallville is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

Watch on Hulu

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