Jack Reacher is known for being a physically imposing character, described in one book as “extremely tall, extremely broad, long-armed and long-legged” with “hands the size of dinner plates.” No matter how well Tom Cruise played the role, the 5’8″ actor was never going to be the right fit in the eyes of some fans.
“There was criticism from the book fans because they had built up a very clear image of what Reacher should look like,” Childs said. While fans of the books who approached the movie with a preexisting mental image of Reacher may have objected to Cruise, he said that new fans really enjoyed Cruise’s performance. So when it came time to cast the show he wanted to balance the interests of both groups. “It just became a different proposition and I guess the opportunity of thinking ‘alright, we can get a much bigger guy so the book fans are going to be happy,’” he said. “But we’re also focusing on the non-book readers. What do they need? They need just great entertainment, they don’t have the reference already and so we also had to satisfy them.” While Childs said he is a fan of both actors and praised Cruise for dedicating himself to the role, he now understands why some fans took issue with him. “I think that the size thing is important to certain parts of the narrative,” he said. “Reacher has got to scare people, and you can do that so much easier with one glance of this huge animal rather than a normal-sized actor.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
