Alan Ritchson’s War Thriller Is Officially Netflix’s Biggest Sci-Fi Sensation of the Year

Published Aug 8, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

Adam Blevins began working in the entertainment industry in 2022 as a Staff Writer for Agents of Fandom, where he progressed to Senior Editor and interviewed talent from Marvel Studios, House of the Dragon, and Planet of the Apes. He joined Collider as a News Author in April 2024, was promoted to a Senior position in December 2024, and has written over 3,000 articles for the site, including exclusives relating to Avengers: Doomsday, The Penguin, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, and more. He primarily writes about the latest box office numbers and the hottest movies and TV shows on streaming, while also covering superhero and sci-fi news. He has completed a set visit for The Chosen and even has several months of experience writing Gaming Features at ScreenRant. You can find him on X, LinkedIn, and Muckrack.

2026 has been the year of Alan Ritchson, which is especially impressive considering he hasn’t even returned to his biggest role yet. Ritchson has exploded in popularity in the last few years thanks to his performance as Reacher in the hit Prime Video series of the same name. Not only has Prime Video announced that Reacher Season 4 is releasing on August 12, but it’s also been confirmed that Ritchson will star in the first Reacher spin-off, Neagley, which launches around the world on September 16. Ritchson also has a new movie with Owen Wilson, Runner, which is set to hit theaters next month around the same time that Neagley comes out. He can also be seen in theaters right now thanks to his new movie, Motor City, which only has a few lines of dialogue — it’s mostly Ritchson punching stuff and looking cool.

However, the biggest project for Ritchson in 2026 so far has been War Machine, the new sci-fi thriller that dropped on Netflix back in March. The film was billed as one of Netflix’s most ambitious movies ever, so it was already considered one of the most anticipated movies of the year, but it smashed records on its way to earning over 130 million views, even landing a spot in the all-time Netflix top 10. Still to this day, it’s hanging around in the top 10 in a few countries, months removed from its global premiere. War Machine is the perfect mash-up of Edge of Tomorrow and Predator, as it features a dangerous, advanced threat for which soldiers are wildly unprepared, but also the element that they’re being hunted in foreign territory.

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.

The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.

You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

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