Tom Cruise’s replacement in a canceled franchise wrote him a letter out of respect, but was told not to hand it over

Stepping in to replace Tom Cruise is about as daunting a task as you can think of, but people were genuinely thrilled when Alan Ritchson was announced to be headlining Prime Video’s episodic literary adaptation Reacher.

While the Top Gun and Mission: Impossible legend steered his own Jack Reacher to a decent amount of money at the box office amidst strong reviews, the wheels came off when sequel Never Go Back rolled around. Not only that, but there were a lot of people – including author Lee Child – who couldn’t get on board with the diminutive star playing the hulking character.

On the other hand, calling Ritchson a sizeable slab of beef would be an understatement, but the actor revealed during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show that he wrote a respectful letter of appreciation to his predecessor, only to be told that handing it over to the A-list megastar may not be the best course of action.

“You know, Don Granger, who runs film at Skydance, produces all of Tom Cruise’s stuff, has been partners with Tom Cruise for many years and helped put this together with Tom, is my boss and is a producer on the show. I said, “Should I reach out to Tom out of respect?” I wrote him a letter and I was like, “Should I give this to him? Would it be inappropriate?” And he goes, “I think it’s best — he wants to just move on from this, he gave it his blessing, he’s totally fine with what’s happening now, I think we should just leave it.”

So, no, I never talked to him about it. I just felt it was a respectful thing to do. “Dear Mr. Cruise, I appreciate what you did for the brand.” I think a big part of why Reacher is so successful is the eyes he brought to it. Say what you want about whether he was right for Reacher or not, most people know about Reacher because of Mr. Cruise. I have a huge debt of gratitude for him and what he brought to the show.”

Any plans for Cruise’s third outing as the military investigator were abandoned after Never Go Back fell short on a critical and commercial level, whereas Ritchson’s Reacher was renewed for a second season in double-quick time, so it worked out pretty well for everyone involved in the long run.