Once you have watched Reacher on Amazon Prime Video, it becomes really hard to imagine anyone else playing Jack Reacher besides Alan Ritchson. A guy with that build looks perfect for the role.
But here’s something surprising – he actually had to fight to get the role, and it almost didn’t happen because of a tiny detail.
On Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, Ritchson shared something pretty wild. He was originally rejected for the role because of his height.
He said, “I was passed on in the very beginning of the process, like everybody was.” The issue? He’s 6’3″, while Jack Reacher is described as 6’5″ in the books.
That two-inch difference nearly ended things before they started. “Everybody was trying to get a super-authentic version of Reacher on screen,” he said. Even now, there’s a part of him that thinks about it. “So there’s always an asterisk in my mind when it comes to this role. I had to really fight for that.”
You might be thinking – seriously, two inches? That seems extreme. And normally, you’d be right. Most shows wouldn’t sweat such a small difference.
But Reacher wasn’t working with a clean slate. The series had a lot to prove.
Why the Producers were so Strict about Height
Before the Amazon Prime Video show, there were two Jack Reacher movies starring Tom Cruise. These films, released in 2012 and 2016 respectively and did okay at the box office.
They weren’t disasters by any means. But they had one major problem that drove fans absolutely crazy: Tom Cruise’s height.
Tom Cruise is 5’7, which is way too far from what is described in Lee Child’s books.
Fans were not happy about his casting, and they made their feelings known loud and clear. The backlash was so high that it became a joke in Hollywood circles.
Even Lee Child himself, the author who created Jack Reacher, eventually had to address the elephant in the room. After “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” came out in 2016, Child spoke to Reader’s Digest and was surprisingly honest about the whole thing.
“I love Tom Cruise, I think he’s a great actor, and he’s certainly a great guy,” Child said, making it clear he had nothing personal against Cruise. But then came the kicker: “But ultimately the readers felt he was not an actual representation of Reacher, and I’ve got to defer to the readers.”
That statement says a lot. The child wrote Reacher as an intimidating physical presence on purpose.
The character’s size is part of what makes him who he is. It affects how people react to him, how fights play out, and even how the story unfolds. When that element is missing, something fundamental gets lost.
In the novels, Jack Reacher isn’t just tall, he’s built like a tank. His physical appearance is mentioned constantly because it matters to the story.
People see him coming and think twice about starting trouble. His size gives him an advantage before a fight even begins. This isn’t just about vanity or sticking to the source material for the sake of it.
Lee Child deliberately made the Reacher this way to serve the narrative.
The character is a former military policeman who wanders around America with nothing but the clothes on his back, getting into all sorts of dangerous situations.
His imposing frame is part of his survival toolkit. When you’re dealing with dangerous criminals and corrupt officials without any backup, looking like you could break someone in half comes in pretty handy.
So when it came time to cast the Prime Video series, the producers knew they were under a microscope. Fans had already felt let down once, and now they cannot make the same mistake again.
Every casting choice was going to be observed, especially when it came to Reacher’s most distinguishing characteristic, which is his size.
That’s why Ritchson had to go through such a rigged selection criteria during his audition process. It wasn’t about being difficult or unreasonable. The team needed to deliver something that would win back the trust of readers who’d been disappointed before. Two inches might not seem like much, but after the Tom Cruise experience, they were trying to get as close to perfection as possible.
When Reacher premiered, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Fans finally felt like they were seeing the character they’d imagined while reading the books. Ritchson brought the physicality, the presence, and the attitude that define Jack Reacher. Those two inches? Nobody cares anymore.
Looking back, it’s kind of crazy that Ritchson nearly missed out on a role he seems born to play. But the whole situation shows how much the previous movies had impacted the franchise. The producers learned from those mistakes and were determined not to repeat them.
The success of the Prime Video series proves they made the right call – not just in eventually choosing Ritchson, but in taking the character’s physical description so seriously. Sometimes those details that seem minor on paper actually matter a lot when you’re bringing a beloved character to life. Fans can tell when you’re cutting corners, and they definitely notice when you get it right.
