How Much Bigger Olivier Richters’ Paulie Is Compared To Alan Ritchson’s Reacher

Summary Reacher season 3 has cast Dutch bodybuilder Olivier Richters as Paulie.

Richters is seven feet and two inches tall, nearly a foot taller than star Alan Ritchson.

Paulie will pose a very credible threat to Jack Reacher in the new season.

Reacher's new character gives Alan Ritchson a run for his money in the height department. The Prime Video series is based on the book series by Lee Child, which follows a former military police major turned drifter as he roams the country helping various people in need. Although the character in the novels is six feet and five inches tall, when they were first adapted to live-action in the 2012 movie Jack Reacher and its 2014 sequel Never Go Back, the five-foot-seven Tom Cruise was cast in the title role.

When the Prime Video show debuted in 2022, one of its most notable changes was returning the character to his original towering height on the page by casting the six-foot-three Ritchson. However, the character may be meeting his match in the upcoming Reacher season 3, which is adapting the 2003 novel Persuader. Notably tall Dutch bodybuilder Olivier Richters has been cast opposite Ritchson in the new season, playing Paulie, a possibly unstable bodyguard who works for the rich Zachary Beck (Anthony Michael Hall).

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The Incoming Actor Is More Than Seven Feet Tall

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Incoming Reacher cast member Olivier Richters is seven feet and two inches tall, a stature that has earned him the moniker "The Dutch Giant." Although Ritchson's Jack typically towers over the other characters around him, using his size and strength to bowl over enemies, Richters stretches an additional 11 inches above his already considerable height. Below, see how Ritchson and Richters' heights compare to the reported heights of the entire confirmed cast for season 3, which also includes the famously tall Hall:

Actor Character Height Alan Ritchson Jack Reacher 6' 3" Maria Stern Frances Neagley Unknown Anthony Michael Hall Zachary Beck 6' 1" Sonya Cassidy Agent Susan Duffy 5' 7" Brian Tee Quinn 5' 9" Johnny Berchtold Richard Beck 5' 8" Roberto Montesinos Agent Guillermo Villanueva Unknown Daniel David Stewart Agent Steven Elliot Unknown Olivier Richters Paulie 7' 2"

Although not every cast member's height is known at the time of writing, Richters easily outstrips them all. This isn't entirely surprising, considering how much taller he is than Ritchson, who is usually the tallest member of the cast of any season of the show. In the case of Richters' co-star Sonya Cassidy, who plays Agent Duffy, the Dutch Giant is a full 19 inches taller than her. This is the same difference in height as that between Ritchson and the average 10-year-old.

Why Olivier Richters' Size Is Such A Big Deal For Reacher Season 3

His Threat To Jack Reacher Is More Than Just Physical

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Size has been a key element of the latest Lee Child adaptation from the very beginning. Reacher presenting a character who is even bigger than its lead hero is a major development that will provide him with more of a physical challenge than he's ever had before. However, Paulie will pose an existential threat as well as a physical one, as Reacher will have to completely reconfigure his typical approach to problem-solving, reconsidering his character and possibly altering his own view of himself and his strongest assets.