Before ‘Reacher,’ Alan Ritchson played one of the most unpopular DC superheroes, who later made a big surprise comeback

Fans of the series mainly know Alan Ritchson as ‘Reacher’ in the Amazon Prime Video production of the same name: the 41-year-old has inherited none other than Tom Cruise, who previously embodied the character created by bestselling author Lee Child in two films. But even before taking on the role of Jack Reacher, Ritchson was no stranger to series, appearing in individual TV episodes and streaming hits like “CSI: Miami,” “New Girl” and “Black Mirror.” He started his career in an extremely long-running DC superhero series with a total of ten seasonsthat flickered across television screens at a time when the cinematic universe was still something of the future.

Made between 2001 and 2011, “Smallville” chronicles the childhood of future hero Superman (Tom Welling), who grows up as Clark Kent in the fictional Kansas town of the title. Even though his path to becoming Superman is only gradually told, a whole host of other characters from the DC comic world appear alongside his arch-enemy Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum): from the sixth season onwards the superhero group Justice League plays a role – but still without Bruce Wayne alias Batman, but with Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort), Arrow (Justin Hartley) and Aquaman, among others.

The fishman costume was donned by Alan Ritchson, who made his acting debut with it. As Arthur Curry, he meets Clark Kent, who soon supports him in sabotaging an experiment by the evil company LutherCorp, which poses a serious threat to marine life. But Arthur develops feelings for Clark’s love Lois Lane (Erica Durance), which of course leads to some problems…

Here you can see a photo of Alan Ritchson as Arthur Curry aka Aquaman (far left):

Before the first “Aquaman” movie starring Jason Momoa became a surprise billion-dollar success, Aquaman was labeled a joke among DC comic book heroes because his powers are limited outside the depths of the ocean and he is therefore always on land. to be quite useless. So, it was not the most rewarding task to play Lord of the Seas – but Ritchson, who previously participated as a singer in the talent show “American Idol”, mastered it in the best possible way.

The second big-screen “Aquaman” adventure recently underperformed significantly at the box office against the backdrop of the canceled DC Extended Universe. Now it will be interesting to see what place the Sea King will take in the new DC Universe, which should help the stumbling comic giant to new success from 2025.