Joe Manganiello suspects Tom Cruise may have blocked him from starring as Jack Reacher because of their mutual ex, Sofía Vergara.
In his new memoir, the “Magic Mike” star claims that Amazon execs and production bigs were set on him to play the famed Lee Child character in the streamer’s TV adaptation.
But he says that when the part suddenly went to someone else, his team thought Cruise — who played Reacher in the 2012 and 2016 movie versions of the books — had him nixed.
Joe Manganiello, who is six-feet-five inches tall, says he went through a long process auditioning for the role of Jack Reacher for the Amazon series, “Reacher.” He is shown here on the Today show in 2025. Getty Images
Tom Cruise, who is five-foot-seven, played the role in two movies. He is seen here at the premiere of his new movie “Digger” in Japan last week. Getty Images
In “Bloodlines,” Manganiello writes that in January 2020, he met with Don Granger, an exec at Skydance Media, which produced the Reacher films and the shows. “We talked for an hour and a half,” Manganiello writes, discussing “the backlash over Tom’s size.” In the books, Reacher is an imposing 6-foot-5, and Cruise is famously a diminutive 5-foot-7. Manganiello says Granger told him, “You are the closest thing to Jack Reacher that I’ve ever met in my entire life . . . You look like Reacher is described in the books . . . You have his effortless intelligence.”
The “Magic Mike” star then allegedly impressed showrunner Nick Santora so much that he began writing the rest of the season with Manganiello in mind. He claims Skydance owner David Ellison and author Child were also “thrilled with my performance.”
The role ultimately went to Alan Ritchson, shown here in an episode in Season 4. ©Amazon/Courtesy Everett Collection
But when Manganiello was presented to Amazon head Jen Salke, things soured. He writes that Salke was furious at being excluded from the casting process and “felt that she was being railroaded into a final decision made by a group of primarily male producers that she didn’t feel part of.”
The first movie, which came out in 2012, made $218 million at the box office on a $60 million budget. The 2016 sequel made $162 million, according to reports. ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection
Manganiello claims his team speculated that Cruise, who formerly dated Sofia Vergara, may have torpedoed his chance. Manganiello was married to Vergara at the time. The pair are seen here Screen Actors Guild Awards in L.A. in 2015. WireImage
When Manganiello was told he hadn’t landed the role, his team speculated wildly that Cruise, “an executive producer [on the show], could have potentially come in over the top and vetoed my being cast on account of Sofía.” Cruise had allegedly dated Vergara, Manganiello’s then-wife, in 2005. He is not listed on IMDb as part of the “Reacher” production.
Reps for Cruise did not get back to us.