Alan Ritchson Gives Definitive Blue Mountain State Season 4 Update

Published Jul 24, 2026, 11:20 AM EDT

Before he was the star of Reacher and a frequent lead in action movies, Ritchson played Kevin "Thad" Castle in Blue Mountain State. It aired for three seasons and focused on the football team of a fictitious university, developing enough of a devoted following that the characters returned in a one-off follow-up film after the series was cancelled.

It seemed as though Thad and his companions were preparing to make another return, with reports of a revival being fast-tracked into production. But well over a year after those reports first surfaced, the momentum behind the show's return has stalled. The reasons why that happened are now becoming clear.

In an Ask Me Anything on Reddit, Ritchson was asked about the chances of a Blue Mountain State revival. The actor gave a candid answer, pointing to several hampering factors that include the size of the original cast and the budget the revival series would require. Also, at a time when streaming platforms are thinking of global audiences, the Reacher lead indicated that American football had a primarily domestic audience. His full response is included below:

As for a follow-up, we tried it. It's just that the show got huge, the cast is huge, the world it built is huge, but the world of football is very domestic. There's a lot of challenges that making a show like that today would face. The biggest one being the budget. It would be a very expensive comedy to make these days. We've had many of those kinds of conversations, and it'd just be too hard to get the numbers to work. And then you talk about reducing the casts, making big changes, and then you just start to lose the spirit of the show. I think that ship has sailed sadly, but will always hold a fun place in my heart for sure.

Ritchson, who was promoting his latest action movie Motor City, which is currently in theaters, was asked by the same user about what Thad would be up to these days. He replied: “I think Thad would probably be on probation somewhere haha.”

Considering that the Smallville alum wrote that the “ship has sailed sadly,” it's safe to say that the current chapter of Blue Mountain State is closed. The possibilities of a revival first surfaced in February 2024, with news that the long-awaited sequel series was looking for a home. Ritchson confirmed that the revival was still in development a year later. News then followed that Prime Video could be the home of Blue Mountain State season 4, considering that's where Reacher streams.

But it's true that Blue Mountain State had a large cast. Chris Romano, who co-created the comedy with Eric Falconer, was one of the three leads alongside Darin Brooks and Ritchson. There was also Frankie Shaw, Gabrielle Dennis, Denise Richards, Rob Ramsay, Omari Newton, Kwasi Songui, James Cade, Meghan Heffern, and future Arrow star Stephen Amell among those with supporting and recurring roles.

That may have impeded the comedy's revival. But it had a great run. After its 39-episode run on Spike TV, the faithful viewership rallied to complete the story via a Kickstarter campaign that resulted in Rise of Thadland, which was released in 2016 and revealed that Ritchson's character had been drafted into the NFL.

That doesn't quite go as planned, but Thad and the rest of the regulars still get something close to a happy ending. At least as much as the spirit of Blue Mountain State allows.