Joe Manganiello still does not know why he lost the lead in Reacher. In his new memoir Bloodlines, released Oct. 13, the actor writes that his team wondered whether Tom Cruise had a hand in it, but he stresses that “it was all just speculation,” E! News and Page Six reported.
What Manganiello wrote about the Reacher role
Manganiello says he lost the part of Jack Reacher in Prime Video’s series in 2022 to Alan Ritchson, after believing he was all but guaranteed it, per E! News. “No one would tell me what the hell happened,” he wrote.
His team had a theory. “Maybe Tom Cruise, who was listed as executive producer because he had starred in the previous film adaptations, could have come over the top and vetoed my being cast,” Manganiello wrote, according to E! News. He added that the theory involved his then-wife, Sofia Vergara, who had been linked to Cruise years earlier.
What is not confirmed
None of this is confirmed. E! News notes that Cruise, who played Reacher in two films, has not been listed among the TV series’ producers, and that Manganiello himself called it speculation. E! says it reached out to Cruise’s representatives and had not heard back at publication. TMZ also covered the memoir passage.
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