‘Reacher’ Spinoff ‘Neagley’ On Prime Video Makes Chicago Its Home

CHICAGO — Where Prime Video’s hit action series “Reacher” prides itself on centering a new location each season for its beefy, itinerant protagonist to find trouble, spinoff series “Neagley” puts down deep roots in the Windy City. 

The series centers on fan favorite character (and staunch ally to Alan Ritchson’s Jack Reacher) Frances Neagley, a fellow soldier and former member of the 110th Special Investigations Unit, who’s set up shop in Chicago as a private investigator. It premiered on Prime Video last week as an original series for the streaming service.

As of Monday, it’s the number one series on Prime Video.

Unlike Reacher, the central character of 30 published books in Lee Child’s popular thriller series, Neagley hasn’t had a focused story of her own. We know only three things about her: She’s as tough as Reacher, she doesn’t like to be touched and she’s Chicago-born and -raised. 

“Neagley” is set primarily in her hometown, and the series opens with the character mourning the untimely death of a childhood friend under mysterious circumstances, filmed on location on an “L” track Downtown. Authorities chalk it up to a drug-fueled accident; she feels differently. 

So she begins her investigations, unraveling a larger conspiracy involving a rural wellness cult and rogue pharmaceutical companies. And along the way, Neagley will have to wrestle with personal demons from the past (which might explain her haphephobia, or fear of touching people) and her upbringing on Chicago’s South Side.

Maria Sten, a Danish-Congolese actor with prior roles in Syfy’s “Channel Zero” and “Swamp Thing,” hadn’t spent much time in Chicago before filming “Neagley.” So before production began, she took an “exploratory Neagley childhood trip” in the dead of winter, exploring the city and its different neighborhoods to get into Neagley’s mindset. “It’s so important to get the texture of the place that you’re supposedly set in,” the actor told Block Club.

Nicholas Wootton, who serves as showrunner alongside fellow “Reacher” head Nick Santora, said Chicago has always been in the DNA of the character and the series. “She has connections all over the place, not just from knowing people from growing up there, but as someone who’s a private investigator and has done police work.” Wootton’s wife is from Chicago, and he wanted to convey the “grounded” elements of his own family life experience in the city in Neagley’s connection to the city and its neighborhoods. 

While Chicago is the heart of “Neagley”‘s setting, the show shot many of its scenes in Toronto, which often stands in for Chicago as a Canadian filming location. “There is a shocking level of comparison” between the two cities visually, says Wootton; Lake Ontario can stand in for Lake Michigan, and the architecture often bears a strong resemblance. 

The scenes from “Echo Canyon Farm,” home of the wellness cult, also necessitated a more rural setting.

But still the series contains “so many things that are [uniquely] Chicago,” said Wootton, which necessitated a weeklong shoot on location in the city. 

The big Chicago location the team knew they had to hit was Wrigley Field, 1060 W. Addison St., where Neagley drags Reacher, a bona fide Yankees fan, to a Cubs game in the series premiere. “It’s such an iconic structure,” says Wootton, who lamented having to leave the production that day to attend a wedding. It took the production months and months of negotiation to get permission to shoot there, but “if we’re going to do it, let’s do it,” he asserted.

Other local scenes included in the Chicago shoot took place under the CTA tracks on LaSalle Street for a dialogue scene between Neagley and her new contact, Keno (Jasper Jones), and at the Damen Pink Line Stop in Pilsen, 2010 S. Damen Ave., for an early chase between Neagley and a suspect. The trailer features Neagley darting across a Downtown bridge with a lovely nighttime shot of the city in the background. Chicagoans will appreciate local-heavy dialogue like, “You have two minutes to get to the southwest corner of Jackson and LaSalle.”

While in town, the key Toronto production crew worked with a team consisting of 95% Chicago teamsters and experienced film and TV production crew. Wootton lauded the local Chicago crew for their “clockwork” efforts: “These people were all extremely experienced and excellent.”

“I love Chicago, and I wish we could film here more,” Sten added. “It’s been so lovely to be here.”

Wootton takes great pride in setting “Neagley” in Chicago, and sees plenty of opportunity to explore more aspects of the city in future seasons. “The vibe is just unmistakable,” he said of the city, and he and the team worked to capture as much of Chicago’s character as they could. That key exterior shooting in the city, he says, is the stuff that “really, really sells” the feeling of placing Neagley in a Chicago context. 

Where else might they try to shoot in a prospective season two? “The Riverwalk,” Wootton quickly responded. “It’s spectacular and very unique; you never see something like that elsewhere in the world.” 

The debut eight-episode season of “Neagley” is currently available for viewing on Prime Video.

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