The actress joins showrunners Nick Wootton and Nick Santora in previewing the action-packed spinoff for EW.

Maria Sten takes on Chicago’s underbelly in search of the truth in Neagley first look (exclusive)

The actress joins showrunners Nick Wootton and Nick Santora in previewing the action-packed spinoff for EW.

By Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre

Mekishana Pierre is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2025. Her work has previously appeared on Entertainment Tonight and Popsugar.

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June 30, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

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Alan Ritchson and Maria Sten on 'Neagley'. Credit:

Shane Mahood/Prime

- Check out the first look at Prime Video's upcoming spinoff of the popular *Reacher *series, *Neagley*.

- Maria Sten, who plays the titular P.I., and showrunners Nick Woottoon and Nick Santora preview the action-packed series for EW, which premieres Sep. 16, on Prime Video.

- "What does Neagley feel like and look like when she is in her own world, not just coming to save Reacher's ass?" Sten says of the series' premise.

Make room, *Reacher* — there's another troublemaker (and solver) on the scene looking to take down some big bads.

More than a year after it was announced that Prime Video would be developing a spinoff of its Alan Ritchson–led drama, ** has the exclusive first look at the series centered on Maria Sten's fan-favorite character Frances Neagley.

The corporate security professional made her debut as Jack Reacher's (Ritchson) former military protégé and No. 1 ride-or-die with guest appearances on *Reacher*. But Sten's portrayal of Neagley exceeded even author Lee Child's vision for the character when he wrote her in the books, so it's no surprise that it led to a series following her adventures as a P.I. in Chicago.

"Her approach to the character, her physicality, is that you buy that she is strong and able to beat up some really bad people," co creator and co-showrunner Nick Santora tells EW of Sten's unique approach to the character that inspired the spinoff. "From her vulnerability to her toughness to her humor and everything in between, [co-creator and co-showrunner Nick Wootton] and I both feel it's worked out really great with Maria."

Sten on 'Neagley'.

Sabrina Lantos/Prime

Santora notes that Sten was "great all through *Reacher*," and did the same when stepping up to lead her own series. "Now giving her the torch to carry as the lead of the show, she's also been great," he adds.

The series will follow Neagley as she becomes hell-bent on justice after learning that a beloved friend from her past has been killed in a suspicious accident. Using everything she's learned from Reacher and her time as a member of the 110 Special Investigators, Neagley puts herself on a dangerous path to uncover a menacing evil.

While Neagley is undeniably a force of nature, the P.I. won't be taking on the underbelly of Chicago all on her own as she seeks to uncover the truth. Starring alongside Sten are Greyston Holt as Detective Hudson Riley, Adeline Rudolph as Renee Birdwhistle, Jasper Jones as Keno, Matthew Del Negro as Pierce Woodrow, and Damon Herriman as Lawrence Cole.

Ritchson is also set to appear on the spinoff as a guest star, reprising his role as Reacher.

Sten on 'Neagley'.

Amazon Prime Video

"Getting this cast together was amazing," Wootton says of the actors joining Sten for the freshman entry. The duo noted that unlike its predecessor, which regularly changes location and surrounding characters, *Neagley*'s cast is one that plans to stick around.

"We had to think of a world and characters that would be beloved enough that audiences would wanna see them season after season after season because Neagley is not a wanderlust like her pal Reacher," Santora explains. It's also one of the fundamental elements of the new show that sets it apart from its original.

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And no one is more ready for fans to see all the differences that *Neagley *will present than its leading lady.

"I'm so excited about the world getting to know Neagley a little bit better," Sten tells EW. "I'm very grateful for the opportunity to just dive deeper into this character, you know? I've lived with her for quite a while now and I'm so thrilled to just get to sort of scratch the surface a little bit further compared to what we've seen so far."

Sten admits she hadn't anticipated the success of *Reacher*, nor the response to her portrayal of Neagley when she signed up for the role, but she's grateful for where it's taken her. Even with the additional pressure that comes with being bumped up on the call sheet.

"It's very exciting to be given this opportunity, but of course there's also a lot of pressure," she admits. "I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well and to carry on the legacy in a way that, you know, pays homage to *Reacher* and, of course, the books and the characters that Lee Child created."

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A bit of that pressure comes from the fact that Sten's version of Neagley is markedly different from her depiction in Child's novels, which the author previously told EW he found impressive.

"Alan is fantastic of course, but the thing that has pleased me most is how good *she* is," Child shared during an interview last February. "Maria Sten is just the surprise star of the show to me."

Child went on to admit that Sten's portrayal has even changed how he sees the character in his mind. "People have asked me, when I think of Reacher now, do I see Alan Ritchson? And the answer to that is really no," Child said. "Because Reacher has been fixed in my mind for so long. But when I see Neagley, I do see Maria Sten. I've lost sight of how I originally conceived of her. She owns that role now so much, and she's getting her own show based on it, which is thoroughly deserved."

The ever-humble Sten gives much of the credit for Neagley's deserved transformation to Santora and Wootton, who went into the creation of *Neagley *with no additional source material from which to draw.

"Neagley carries this huge mystery around her, about where her trauma comes from [and] where her haphephobia (fear of touching or of being touched) comes from," Sten explained. "So, I had to make sense of that going into playing the character, of course. And that has evolved since Neagley became a TV show. But I just love what the Nicks did in really exploring that because that's the secret that everybody's wondering about. So that's the thing we kind of want to investigate as she's also investigating this fatal accident that's happened."

Jasper Jones, Adeline Rudolph, Sten, and Greyston Holt on 'Neagley'.

Shane Mahood/Prime

The basic idea of *Neagley*, Sten reasoned, is to see the character operate on her home turf and "dive deeper" into the events that made her who she is, and who she's meant to become.

"It was to dive deeper into her background and also really learn how she relates to other people or fails to relate to other people because we only see her really relating to Reacher in *Reacher*," the actress added. "And so this is really diving into Neagley's world and seeing how she operates on her own, in her own world, and also how she struggles with that. That, for me, was exciting to figure out: okay, what does Neagley feel like and look like when she is in her own world, not just coming to, you know, save Reacher's ass?"

Fans will get to learn that themselves when *Neagley *premieres exclusively on Prime Video on Sept. 16, a month after *Reacher *season 4 premieres on Aug. 12.

*Reacher* will premiere with its first three episodes, followed by weekly episode releases culminating with the debut of all eight episodes of *Neagley*.

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