Amazon Originally Didn't Want To Cast Alan Ritchson As Jack Reacher
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.
Ritchson was initially passed over for Reacher
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."
But it seems that wasn't enough to convince the casting producers of "Reacher." Despite — as Ritchson told Men's Journal — weighing 205 pounds at the time, standing 6 feet 3 inches, and generally representing something close to a Jack Reacher type, the producers just didn't think he was right for the part. As the actor told Collider:
"It's funny, I actually didn't get the role at first. I'm not exactly six foot five and I'm not exactly 250, and I had heard that they were being very specific with their physical demands. After working with Tom Cruise and a lot of fans being upset that he didn't really have the physicality, as great as he was in the role, they really wanted to get that right. I was like, 'Well, they wanna read me, but I know they're gonna find someone like Dwayne Johnson, who's a huge dude.' I auditioned for the part and it was good, it was just that my take on it was a little different than what they had in mind, at the time."
Second time's a charm
Of course, Alan Ritchson would eventually come to play Jack Reacher when the show finally arrived on Prime Video in February 2022. Having gained 30 pounds after working out for five days a week over eight months, by the time he came to shoot "Reacher" season 1, the actor had gotten even closer to embodying the all-important physicality of Lee Child's hulking hero. But how did he manage to get a part he'd already lost? Well, as it turns out, it was all down to a change behind the scenes. In the Collider interview, Ritchson went on to explain:
"There was a shake-up with who was casting, so they started again from scratch, and I'd already been passed on, as had everybody who did an audition. But when they came back around, they picked a few tapes that they'd seen already, and I was one of them, so they wanted me to come back and try again, and it worked out."
The folks over at Prime Video are probably pretty glad they did rewatch Ritchson's tape, considering "Reacher" turned out to be one of the most popular shows on the platform. There's no doubt casting a more book-accurate actor as the lead contributed to some of that success — though the over-the-top action and absurdly fun tone probably helped quite a bit. And with "Reacher" season 2 set to adapt the book "Bad Luck and Trouble," Ritchson's former soldier will have to use his intimidating physique even more as he hunts down the people responsible for killing his former Army comrades. Meanwhile, Tom Cruise is too busy pulling off the biggest stunts in cinema history to care much about being replaced.