Jack Reacher will soon return to our screens with "Reacher" season 2. The show proved to be a huge hit for Amazon Prime Video, topping the Nielsen streaming chart and being renewed for a second season within days of the first run of eight episodes landing on the platform. Much of that likely had to do with the striking presence of series lead Alan Ritchson. The former "Smallville" and "Titans" actor fully embodied the role of the eponymous former U.S. Army Major, using his imposing frame and impressive physique to portray Reacher in a way that Tom Cruise never quite managed in the "Jack Reacher" films.
Cruise played the military police officer, who originated in Lee Child's novels, in 2012's "Jack Reacher" and 2016's "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back." But when it came time for a TV show based on the character, the legendary action star was nowhere to be found. And there was a good reason Cruise wasn't playing Jack Reacher in the TV series. Namely, that he was just too small. The "Mission: Impossible" star stands 5 feet 7 inches, which caused somewhat of a controversy when it was first announced that he'd be playing a character that Child originally envisioned as 6 feet 5 inches and 250 pounds. As the author told Entertainment Weekly, "Ultimately the readers are right: the size of Reacher is really, really important and it's a big component of who he is."
In other words, Jack Reacher was always supposed to be a giant, unstoppable hulk of a man. Not someone who needed camera tricks to appear taller. It seems as though it would make the 6-foot-3-inch muscular Ritchson a shoo-in for the part. Oddly, even he wasn't initially deemed right for the part of Child's man-mountain.
As Lee Child's website states, Jack Reacher's adventures arise from his roaming across the U.S.: "He'll arrive in town, come across someone who needs his help, solve a mystery and take out the bad guys, and then get on the next bus out of town." Alan Ritchson not only had the brawn required for such a role but having grown up as the son of an Air Force officer and getting used to the nomadic lifestyle that came with it, he also had an insight into Jack Reacher's mental state. As Ritchson told /Film in a 2022 interview, "I get what that life does to you."
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