‘Neagley’: Everything To Know About The Fast-Tracked ‘Reacher’ Spin Off About The Big Guy’s Best Friend (April 2025 Update)

Prime Video/Amazon knows a good thing when they’re hit by it. In this case, the hits are coming from Reacher, who recently defeated the holy hell out of the Bigger Guy in the third season based upon Lee Child’s Persuader novel. A strong highlight of this season, as always, was the appearance of Maria Sten as Reacher’s best friend, Frances Neagley, who added insight on “Big Guys” (as we will discuss below) during the third season finale. She is also adored on social media and was a wise addition to the series.

Neagley is, of course, a character from the Jack Reacher novels who only appears in a few books, but on TV, she is the glue that is written into every season. She knew precisely how to send up an ATM-fueled flare to call Reacher into action in the Bad Luck and Trouble-adapting second season. She always knows what sandwich to order for him in a diner, and she reads him even better than any fan of Reacher books did before the show began. Lee Child previously revealed to Empire magazine how Neagley was initially planned as “a strategic decision” to help explain Reacher’s inexplicable deductions and “bolster the exposition,” but she turned into much more.

So when Amazon started to consider Reacher spin offs, they knew where to turn. Let’s get down to investigative business on what to expect from Neagley.

Plot

If there was any doubt that Neagley could carry her own show, it evaporated when a thug implored her, “I’m bleeding out. Call me an ambulance,” to which Neagley dryly responded, “Okay, you’re an Ambulance,” and continued with her bowl of cereal. Then even skeptics were sold, and as Maria Sten posted on Instagram, “[I]t’s officially official people! Neagley is happening!” Filming had already begun, and Sten added, “[O]ur creative team has cooked up an incredible show with such a stellar cast… all I can say for now is welcome to Neagley’s world. it’s time for coco pops!!”

From there, Prime Video/Amazon has unveiled a synopsis that suggests how Neagley, even though she will always be there when needed by Reacher, isn’t simply waiting around for his catastrophes to happen. Also, Alan Ritchson will appear in the spin off, too, and Amazon has delivered a logline:

Frances Neagley is a private investigator in Chicago. When she learns that a beloved friend from her past has been killed in a suspicious accident, she becomes hell-bent on justice. Using everything she’s learned from Jack Reacher and her time as a member of the 110 Special Investigators, Neagley puts herself on a dangerous path to uncover a menacing evil.

Also vital to this spin off’s set up: how well Neagley and Reacher go together, and how well they operate when they are apart. Over their years of working together as Army colleagues and beyond, she has crawled inside his head, and he’s surprisingly fine with this. In the third Reacher finale, Neagley even dropped some wisdom on the Big Guy (whose Army underlings made that nickname known a few seasons ago), and now, Reacher’s status as Physically Big Guy has gained more context on how he feels about “big guys” who gain that status through power (and abuse that power):

“It’s not because you need to put things right, and it’s not because you love the little guy. It’s because you hate the big guy. You hate the big, powerful, smug sons of bitches who think they can get away with things, so you make sure they don’t.”

Hoo boy. And as Neagley goes her own way in the spin off, we can also expect the franchise to keep building upon how she moves about the world in a way that sets her apart and also contributes to her brilliance. As Reacher once put it, she’s “not the scooch-in type,” so she won’t suddenly turn into a hugger, and as a quick side note, in Child’s Night School novel, Reacher mentioned that Neagley’s aversion to touch is actually rooted in haptephobia, which a fear of being touched by others. On TV, this doesn’t come across as a fear, which tells us a lot about how Neagley operates and maneuvers within missions.

Above all, we can count on her adherence to Reacher’s most reliable motto: “Details matter.” Here for it.

Cast

The Reacher franchise is not skimping on this spin off. In addition to Maria Sten as Frances Neagley, Deadline revealed early that Ritchson is “set to appear on the spinoff as a guest star.” In a press release, Prime Video also announced five series regulars:

– Damon Herriman (Justified) as Lawrence Cole

– Matthew Del Negro (Mayor of Kingstown) as Pierce Woodrow

– Jasper Jones (King Ivory) as Keno

– Adeline Rudolph (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) as Renee

– Greyston Holt (The Night Agent) as Detective Hudson Riley

Release Date

Neagley will fill the gap in between Reacher seasons, so while the Big Guy is working on his fourth season, we can expect Maria Sten to be back much sooner. Lee Child believes that late 2025 is possible “with a bit of luck.”

Trailer

Since Amazon probably won’t have teaser material ready for a few months, and we’ve already discussed the all-important “ambulance” scene, there’s no time like the present to revisit Neagley’s cereal obsession as highlighted by Reacher.

Amazon also chose to highlight this third-season scene where Neagley’s ride-or-die status for Reacher was on display.