Shooter is an American drama television series based on the 2007 film of the same name and the first three novels in the Bob Lee Swagger series by Stephen Hunter. The show stars Ryan Phillippe in the lead role of Bob Lee Swagger, a retired United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper from MARSOC living in seclusion who is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the President. USA Network picked up the pilot in August 2015 and ordered the series in February 2016.
The series was originally set to premiere on July 19, 2016, but it was postponed to July 26 due to the July 7 Dallas police officer shootings. USA pulled it entirely after the Baton Rouge police officer shootings on July 17. On October 3, 2016, USA announced that the new premiere date for Shooter would be November 15, 2016. On December 19, 2016, the series was renewed for a second season that premiered on July 18, 2017. On December 4, 2017, the series was renewed for a third season.
On August 15, 2018, USA Network canceled Shooter after three seasons, and its final episode aired on September 13, 2018.
Contents
Cast and characters
Main
Ryan Phillippe as Former GySgt Bob Lee Swagger, a highly trained Marine Raider Scout Sniper and medically retired Marine.
Shantel VanSanten as Julie Swagger, Bob Lee's wife
Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Nadine Memphis, an FBI agent investigating Swagger
Omar Epps as Former Captain Isaac Johnson, a Secret Service Agent, who was Swagger's commanding officer in Marine Raider Regiment.
Eddie McClintock as Jack Payne, a figure involved in the conspiracy against Swagger (season 1; guest, season 3)
Josh Stewart as Solotov, a Chechen master sniper with whom Bob Lee has tangled before (seasons 2–3)
Jesse Bradford as Harris Downey, a D.C. staffer who was once involved with Nadine (recurring, season 2; main, season 3)
Gerald McRaney as Red Bama Sr., owner of Bama Cattle and an Undersecretary in the Department of Agriculture (season 3)
Recurring
David Andrews as Sam Vincent, Bob Lee's close friend and lawyer. (season 1, 3)
David Marciano as Howard Utey, Nadine Memphis' superior at the FBI (season 1)
Lexy Kolker as Mary Swagger, Bob Lee's and Julie's daughter
William Fichtner as Rathford O'Brien, Bob Lee's former shooting instructor
Tom Sizemore as Hugh Meachum, a CIA black ops operative with mysterious motives (season 1)
Rob Brown as Donny Fenn, Swagger's best friend and spotter who was killed by Solotov (seasons 1–2)
Sean Cameron Michael as Grigory Krukov, a Russian FSB agent (season 1)
Delaina Mitchell as Anna Wallingford, Julie's married sister and Mary's aunt (season 1, 3)
David Chisum as Jim Wallingford, Anna's husband and Julie's brother in law (season 1)
Michelle Krusiec as Lin Johnson, Isaac's loyal wife (season 1-2)
Matt Shallenberger as John Wheeler, a mysterious and deadly Atlas operative (guest: season 1, recurring: season 3)
Desmond Harrington as Lon Scott, the CEO of Anhur Dynamics (season 1)
Beverly D'Angelo as Patricia Gregson, a former National Security Advisor
Jerry Ferrara as Kirk Zehnder, a former marine who always detects a conspiracy and is part of the core team of Bob Lee Swagger (season 2)
Production
On July 6, 2016, while filming a scene at Agua Dulce Airpark, actor Tom Sizemore accidentally ran over a stuntman. Sizemore was supposed to enter the Cadillac Escalade and stay there until the scene ended, but the stunt coordinator told him to pull out, not realizing that the stuntman was behind him.
On July 26, 2017, the second-season episode order was cut back from the planned ten episodes to the eight episodes already filmed after Ryan Phillippe broke his leg on July 16, 2017, in an incident unrelated to the series.
About the cancellation, Omar Epps said: “That was all backdoor politics. It had nothing to do with the numbers. Me and Ryan [Phillippe] had a great time. We were like kids in a candy store. We used to laugh every day we showed up to work, like, 'We're kids again!' We just get to run and jump, push, punch. You know, stuff that little boys do. It was like playing in the playground in the sandbox. I had a great, great time on that show. I have a lot of respect for John Hlavin, who's a showrunner on there. And like I said, Ryan and I got cool and had a great time on that show. That was just the backdoor politics.“
Episodes
Season 1 (2016–17)
Based on Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter.
Season 2 (2017)
Based on Time to Hunt by Stephen Hunter.
Season 3 (2018)
Based on Black Light by Stephen Hunter.
Broadcast
Shooter aired on Thursdays at 10:00 pm on USA Network. The episodes are approximately 43 minutes, and are broadcast in both high- and standard definition. In addition, the streaming service Netflix started to broadcast the series in certain regions worldwide, the first season weekly on November 15, 2016, with a one-day delay with respect to the original United States broadcast.
Reception
Shooter received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 47% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 5.75/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Ryan Phillippe's efforts aren't enough to salvage Shooter, a tedious, under-developed drama that lacks an original voice or perspective." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the series has a score 60 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
