It’s kind of funny seeing how Lee Child’s Jack Reacher stories are  succeeding on Amazon Prime Video, because when Hollywood took a shot at adapting the stories, they crashed and burned after only one winning feature.

Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher

The streaming series Reacher is currently in production on Reacher Season 3, with viewers praising the approach to the material, and the casting of Alan Ritchson in the lead role. So, what went wrong with the movies, which had Tom Cruise in the lead (and should have worked better than they did)? If you ask Ed Zwick, the director of Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, he’ll tell you that he was the problem.

Ed Zwick has written a terrific book about his film career called Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions. It’s a terrific tell-all about some major movies we grew up on, and eventually, Zwick gets to his contribution to the Jack Reacher film series.

Zwick took over for Christopher McQuarrie, who actually turned Jack Reacher into a formidable adaptation of the Lee Child book One Shot. And when opening up about the experience in the book, Zwick revealed:

‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,’ which Tom Cruise and I made in 2016, fizzled at the box office. I blame myself (and my willing accomplice, Don Granger) for thinking the audience might enjoy a mash-up of ‘Jack Reacher’ and ‘Paper Moon,’ when in fact they just wanted more red meat. I had a wonderful time working with Cobie Smulders, and I certainly don’t blame Tom for not being six two — as the novelist Lee Child described his protagonist — and should Tom happen to call about making a third movie together, I’ll definitely pick up.

The Jack Reacher series started behind the eight ball because die-hard fans of the novels instantly thought Tom Cruise was wrong to play the part.

Reacher, as we can now see in Alan Ritchson, is meant to be a 6-foot-5 giant – a mountain of a man who deals with problems as bluntly, intensely, and physically as possible. Cruise is ideal for Ethan Hunt. He;s not Jack Reacher.

Also, as Ed Zwick notes, there’s no real room for nuance in the Reacher stories. He calls it “red meat,” but really, fans of the stories just want hard-hitting action.

This is why Alan Ritchson always looks like he has been through the wringer when he shares set visit photos, or talks about the demanding physical nature of the part.

Not that he’s complaining much… unless you talk to him about filming in Canada. Then he might have some choice words. If you forget what Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher: Never Go Back looked like, revisit this trailer.

And then go rewatch the first two seasons of Reacher, on Amazon Prime Video, while we wait for news on the eventual Reacher Season 3. We know that it’s going to adapt the Lee Child book Persuader, and recently added Anthony Michael Hall in a key role. Grab a copy of the book, if you are a fan. It’s a banger.