Movies - TV
Why Amazon’s Reacher Replaced Tom Cruise With Alan Ritchson
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
When Tom Cruise signed on to play the title character in "Jack Reacher," a crime thriller based on a series of novels by Lee Child, fans were in an immediate uproar.
Cruise didn't match Child's physical description of Reacher in the books. During press tours, Child explained that Cruise may not look like Reacher, but conveyed his presence.
However, when Amazon Prime launched a new TV series based on the same book series, the role was filled by Alan Ritchson instead. There was a specific reason for the change.
Showrunners decided Reacher should be played by someone taller. In the books, Reacher was described as being a massive force of violence with a tremendous bulk.
Specifically, Reacher stood at six feet, five inches tall, sported a 50-inch chest, and weighed 220 to 250 pounds. While Cruise can be intimidating, he simply didn’t have the size.