JACK REACHER Set For Television Series Reboot

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Today I realized that I’ve spent the past several years of my life thinking that Jack Reacher and Jack Ryan were the same character. In my defense, I’ve seen only bits and pieces of either of the two Tom Cruise-led Jack Reacher films and have a similarly underwhelming familiarity with Ryan. However much like Ryan, the Jack Reacher character is set to make a transition over into new media.

Creator Lee Child revealed in an interview with BBC that he was rebooting the Jack Reacher franchise and taking the character over to a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon for a more extended means of storytelling. He also confirmed that actor Tom Cruise won’t be reprising the role moving forward.

Child’s reason is a bit too familiar to this particular Batman fan…

He stated:

“I really enjoyed working with Cruise. He’s a really, really nice guy. We had a lot of fun. But ultimately the readers are right. The size of Reacher is really, really important and it’s a big component of who he is.

The idea is that when Reacher walks into a room, you’re all a little nervous just for that first minute. And Cruise, for all his talent, didn’t have that physicality.

So what I’ve decided to do is – there won’t be any more movies with Tom Cruise. Instead we’re going to take it to Netflix or something like that. Long form streaming television, with a completely new actor.

And I want all those readers who were upset about Tom Cruise to help me out – participate in choosing the right actor for the TV series. We’re rebooting and starting over and we’re going to try and find the perfect guy.”

By the way, if you just now heard a sound vaguely reminiscent of an emotionally conflicted, strangled cat, that was me.

Trust me, I get it. Height can absolutely be a defining trait to a character and brings a visual presence onscreen in all sorts of different ways. And in the case of Reacher’s character, it does make a fair amount of sense. But I typically find it frustrating that we live in an era where fans get so utterly hung up on those details that they miss out on something that’s typically trivial like their height and miss out on a possibly fantastic performance and new spin on a character.

What do you think though? Feel free to chime in and join the debate down below!

SOURCE: BBC