Why did Domenick Lombardozzi's Detective Russo leave Reacher? Star's exit and character's fate revisited 

The third season of Reacher on Prime Video is going all guns blazing as it nears the end of its eight-episode run. Following the debacle that was the second season of Reacher, the third season adaptation of Lee Child's popular novel The Persuader seems to tick all the right boxes when it comes to having intensely choreographed action scenes, an intriguing mystery and memorable character arcs.

While the second season of the Prime Video show was largely met with lukewarm audience reception, one character managed to carve out a following for himself. The Wire actor Domenick Lombardozzi played NYPD Detective Gaitano "Guy" Russo on Reacher season two. Guy Russo was assigned to investigate the murder of one of Reacher's military colleagues, who belonged to the 110th Special Investigations Unit.

Throughout the second season, the camaraderie and back-and-forth between Reacher and Guy Russo kept audiences entertained, even leading to grudging mutual respect. Russo met his end in the sixth episode of the second season, New York's Finest, when he was gunned down while trying to protect Marlo Burns's daughter. Thus, Lombardozzi's exit from the show was prompted by creative reasons.

---

Domenick Lombardozzi left Reacher owing to a creative decision made by the showrunners

Author Lee Child did not write the character of Guy Russo into the original source material. Therefore, the showrunners created him specifically for narrative exigencies during the second season. It was only natural that his character would eventually be dropped from the narrative to let other author-backed characters, such as Neagley, reach their full potential.

It was never reported that there was any feud between Lombardozzi and the showrunners after it was decided that his character would be killed off. However, given how Lombardozzi carried his character on-screen, several sections of the audience were saddened to see him go. Since then, Lombardozzi has taken to his Instagram and X profiles to express his gratitude for having been given the character of Guy Russo. He has also revealed that his time on the show was a memorable one:

"An absolute pleasure working with is cast and crew. Big thank you to Nick Santora for creating Russo. Hope you all enjoyed the journey in season two."

---

How to watch Reacher season 3?

Like the first two seasons, the third season is exclusively available on Amazon Prime Video and airs new episodes every Thursday. So far, six out of the total eight episodes have been released. Prime Video membership rates in the United States start at $8.99 monthly. Students can take advantage of a special student package that costs $7.49 per month.