Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
The return of Prime Video’s major action thriller The Terminal List sets up a massive streaming face-off between the biggest shows in the genre. Between Prime Video’s Reacher season 4 and the return of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan in the spinoff movie Ghost War, 2026 was always destined to mark a major showdown between the two biggest Jacks in the action thriller streaming show space.
However, these two huge franchises aren’t the only major contenders in the genre. Not only is Netflix’s The Night Agent quickly catching up to Reacher in terms of peak Dad TV popularity, but Netflix’s Man on Fire remake starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is yet another show that can reasonably lay claim to the title of 2026’s most exciting action thriller streaming series.
As if this weren’t enough, Prime Video somehow has another show that is also in the running for the genre’s most exciting small-screen outing this year. Based on the novel of the same name by author Jack Carr, The Terminal List stars Chris Pratt as Navy SEAL James Reece. After a mission goes wrong and Reece realizes that he and his colleagues were set up for failure, his life and the lives of his family are plunged into peril.
Reece is left with no choice but to uncover a conspiracy that involves the CIA, the US government, his fellow Navy SEALs, and even a few of the show’s seemingly heroic supporting stars. Predicting Who Wins 2026's Battle Of The Action Thrillers Dark, paranoid, and violent, The Terminal List’s eight-episode revenge story has a lot in common with its action thriller competitors.
Like Reacher, the show is about an unstoppable military veteran who can’t help but uproot corruption wherever he goes, even if this means endangering his own life. Like Man on Fire, The Terminal List is a violent vengeance story starring an amoral antihero who isn’t averse to using some ethically dubious techniques to get to the truth.
Like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and Netflix’s The Night Agent, The Terminal List is also a paranoid spy thriller where no one can be trusted and even the hero’s most trusted confidantes can turn out to be turncoats who have double-crossed him. Thus, it is tough to work out which of these shows will prove the biggest hit in 2026, since so many of these share the same ingredients that made them hits in the first place.
Why Action Thrillers Work So Well On Streaming That said, there is one show that stands out above its competitors in this genre. While Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan has been around the longest, the massive popularity of Reacher means that Alan Ritchson’s show is likely to be 2026’s biggest action thriller when the series returns for its fourth outing later this year. With its spinoff, Neagley, already on the way, Reacher is about to expand its franchise even further.
The Terminal List’s prequel, Dark Wolf, admittedly means the show did already spawn a spinoff sooner than Reacher, but the critical and commercial popularity of the Lee Child adaptation is untouchable. Unlike all the other shows mentioned above, Reacher was met with both universal critical acclaim, with Rotten Tomatoes scores of over 90% from critics for every season, and record-breaking viewership numbers. Subscribe to our newsletter for the 2026 action-thriller showdown Want deeper context?
Subscribe to our newsletter for comparative breakdowns of Reacher, The Terminal List, Man on Fire and other streaming thrillers — episode-level insights, franchise takeaways and smart streaming perspective beyond simple recaps. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. Since each new season of Reacher introduces a new setting and supporting cast, the show is uniquely well-suited to streaming.
More broadly, action thrillers excel on streaming services because their fast-paced plots are perfect for binge-watching, where more traditional network formats like sitcoms have less propulsive, serialized narratives.
However, while Prime Video’s The Terminal List is one of the genre’s many 2026 hits, it is the streaming service’s Lee Child adaptation that has truly perfected the action thriller formula for this era. 39 8.8/10 5/10 The Terminal List 10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed Action Thriller Drama Release Date July 1, 2022 Network Amazon Prime Video Showrunner David DiGilio Directors Paul McCrane Writers Chris Pratt2, David DiGilio Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse
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