By The first three episodes of the second season of “Reacher” hit Prime Video on Friday and the acclaimed and popular series’ star Alan Ritchson was on hand on the Jimmy Kimmel show to promote it.
The series is an adaptation of the popular Lee Child novels, with the massively built 6’3 Ritchson physically fitting the character of the books much closer than actor Tom Cruise who played the role on film in 2012 and 2016.
Both those films did solid business, the first making $218.3 million
from a $60 million budget along with being well regarded, whilst the second made $162 million off a comparable budget and was not well received.
Speaking on Kimmel, Ritchson revealed that he tried to reach out to Cruise via letter before taking on the role, but was stopped short:
“I wrote Tom a letter. I wrote him a heartfelt letter. Because here’s the thing, I know what you know. He’s taken some criticism for the role, because he doesn’t aesthetically fit the role of Reacher perfectly, according to the books.
This guy still did two movies that grossed over $300 million, and doesn’t even fit. He’s brought so many eyes to this series. We would not have the success that we have without it.
So out of gratitude, I write him a loving, heartfelt letter, a page-long letter, and I give it to Don Granger, a partner of his at Skydance. My boss. Skydance produces the show.
I said, ‘I think we should give this to him.’ I want him to know like, I’m grateful that he’s passing the torch, and you know, he’s given me his blessing and all that.
And he said, ‘We’re not going to give it to him. It’s a terrible idea. He’s fine with it. Because he’s moved on in life. He’s moved on. And you need to move on, too.’ I said it on the paper and yet the paper never got to Tom.”
The actor then decided to address Cruise directly to camera saying:
“I’m super grateful for you passing the baton to me on Reacher and helping it become what it’s become with the eyes that you brought to the show. So I just want you to know that that was some version of my letter. There’s a few ‘I love yous’, a couple of pictures together, but just leave it there.”
The second season of the Amazon series sees Jack Reacher trying to uncover who is killing members of his former U.S. Army unit, the 110th MP Special Investigations.
He reunites with three of his former teammates (Maria Sten, Serinda Swan and Shaun Sipos), who begin to connect the dots in a mystery where the stakes get higher at every turn.
The remaining five episodes will continue airing through mid-January, whilst a third season is already in production.
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