Alan Ritchson Has Officially Found His Own Terminator Franchise - MCE Notices | California State Portal

Alan Ritchson might not have answered his fans’ exact prayers, but his movie franchise is pretty close to doing so. Alan Ritchson has risen from goofy comedy actor that few people know but those who do love, to a veritable Hollywood star and one of the actors to keep an eye on as we move to the second half of the 2020s.

Ritchson has risen to the top of the pop-cultural milieu thanks to his starring role in Prime Video’s Reacher, where he plays the titular Jack Reacher. Further performances in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and Playdate have only furthered his profile, and with Netflix’s help, he’s now the star of an action franchise.

War Machine debuted on the streaming service in March 2026 after a brief theatrical run in Australia and stars Ritchson as a soldier only referred to as “81”. 81 is a soldier in Afghanistan who suffers the tragic loss of his outfit and decides to enlist in a special operations force with nothing left to lose.

Little do 81 and his new squadmates know that their mission is to take on an enemy that no one on Earth has encountered before. It’s a solid science fiction action series, and with the news that there will be a sequel, it looks like Ritchson has an action movie franchise to call his own.

War Machine Is Now A Sci-Fi Action Franchise

When you get an actor like Ritchson, who has the physical capabilities to pull off big action stunts and the acting chops to drive dramatic moments, there’s a psychological pull to want to see him in all your favorite franchises. Imagine how great your beloved, though spiraling, TV series could be if only “insert name here” appeared to lift the story to the top of Letterboxd!

For someone like Ritchson, a film series like the Terminator franchise feels like the win-win kind of deal that would benefit Ritchson’s blossoming career and energize a diminishing movie universe. War Machine, in that regard, is a little like, “We have Terminator at home!” except the “Terminator at home” is still pretty good.

That War Machine has a sequel in the works means that we can officially say Ritchson is involved with a science fiction action movie franchise, which at least gets us one half of that win-win deal we were hoping for. We don’t know the release date for the War Machine sequel yet, but it appears that most of the cast and crew will return.

Will Alan Ritchson Ever Appear In The Terminator Franchise?

Just because Ritchson is in the War Machine franchise doesn’t mean he couldn’t possibly be a part of another science fiction action franchise, like Terminator. He would probably be a welcome cast member of any project he suggests interest in, and that could include a new Terminator film.

James Cameron has consistently said that he was still planning on making another Terminator movie, though he’s also been clear that he has little idea about what it will look like. The only concrete piece of information seems to be that Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn’t be involved, which could leave the door wide open for War Machine‘s Alan Ritchson.