Alan Ritchson after the breakout: the overlooked 2018 zombie comedy resurfacing now

Alan Ritchson is back in the spotlight for more than one reason: as his fame rises with “Reacher, ” attention is also circling back to earlier, less widely seen projects that show a different kind of screen presence. One of the clearest examples is the 2018 horror comedy “Office Uprising, ” a film now being re-evaluated as a showcase for a side of Alan Ritchson that audiences may not associate with his best-known role.

What happens when Alan Ritchson’s pre-“Reacher” canon gets re-rated?

In “Reacher, ” Alan Ritchson is framed as a stoic, laconic bruiser who prefers to speak with his fists. “Office Uprising” flips that image by casting him as Bob, the head of an advertising department who becomes a raging zombie after drinking an energy drink that has contaminated effects. The contrast is central to why the film is resurfacing in conversation: it places Alan Ritchson in a role built around volatility and heightened intensity rather than restrained force.

The renewed interest is also tied to a broader reassessment of how prolific Alan Ritchson has been across formats and genres. The same body of work that includes a Prime Video series that elevated his profile also includes multiple lesser-known titles, including an overlooked MMA film called “Above the Shadows, ” several appearances on “American Idol, ” and a directorial debut in 2021 with “Dark Web: Cicada 3301. ” Within that context, “Office Uprising” stands out as a genre piece that aims to be as funny as it is horrifying, using a workplace setting to stage violent, comic chaos.

What if the release platform shaped how “Office Uprising” was remembered?

Visibility matters as much as performance in determining whether a film becomes part of the mainstream conversation. “Office Uprising” was released on Sony Crackle, which was later renamed Crackle and ultimately shuttered after its owner, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, went bankrupt. That distribution path helps explain why many viewers did not encounter the film when it first appeared, even with a recognizable ensemble and a high-concept hook.

The film itself centers on Desmond Brimble, an office worker played by Brenton Thwaites, who discovers that an energy drink is turning colleagues at a corporate office into violent zombies. Alan Ritchson’s Bob becomes part of the murderous hordes after drinking the contaminated product. The cast also includes Zachary Levi as Adam Nusbaum, Jane Levy as Samantha, and Karan Soni as Mourad Haryana, with the story positioning Desmond, Samantha, and Haryana as the ones with a chance of making it out alive as the workplace collapses into rabid violence.

Even in a crowded zombie-comedy space, the film’s repositioning now is less about claiming it as an undiscovered masterpiece and more about recognizing what it provides: a compact example of how Alan Ritchson can play against type, leaning into “peak intensity” in a way that differs from the controlled physicality of his most famous character.

What happens next for a career already broader than the breakout narrative?

As “Reacher” pushes Alan Ritchson to a new level of fame, there is an expectation that he will branch into more areas—directing, writing, and more varied roles. Yet the record in his pre-“Reacher” work indicates those expansions are not hypothetical; they have already happened. The current moment, then, is not only about what he might do next, but about how earlier projects are being re-contextualized once the audience base grows large enough to look backward.

“Office Uprising, ” directed by Lin Oeding—a martial artist and stunt performer turned filmmaker who previously directed Jason Momoa in the 2018 action thriller “Braven”—is a useful reference point in that re-contextualization. It underlines how Alan Ritchson’s range has been present in plain sight, even if the film’s original platform limited its reach. As viewers revisit older titles, “Office Uprising” functions as a reminder that the arc toward broader recognition often runs through work that initially flew under the radar.