Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie have had a fruitful relationship over the past several years, with the pair churning out several successful installments in the Mission: Impossible franchise. And of course, the two are currently working away on two more installments. However, some may forget that they also worked together on 2012’s Jack Reacher, which didn’t quite connect with audiences in the way that their other franchise has. Even though the original film and the 2016 sequel didn’t perform that well, the two did still have ideas for a third movie.
Christopher McQuarrie recently revealed that he and Tom Cruise discussed potential ideas for a third film in Cruise’s Jack Reacher franchise and were hoping to take the character into a darker, R-rated direction:
Tom and I were talking about, had the series continued, to take Reacher to a place where, in the post-Deadpool, post-Joker world, Reacher could have been an R-rated movie and an R-rated franchise and really fed into the brutality of those books. We were fully ready to lean into that.
This would’ve been a complete departure from what was seen from the first two installments of the Jack Reacher franchise, and it honestly would have been an interesting change of pace. Although fans may be disappointed that they won’t get to see this kind of take on Reacher, McQuarrie also confirmed to Empire Magazine that he and Cruise are cooking up a very “un-Cruise” character that’s even darker than their idea for Jack Reacher 3:
Also: It’s a very un-Tom character, and we have plans for an even more un-Tom character that we’ve been talking about, which I’m hopeful about in the future. […] The franchise has moved on, and we haven’t. So we’ve now got stuff in the hopper. The [Jack Reacher] stuff we’re talking about now is tinker toys [compared to it], I’m actually very, very excited.
The idea of a darker Jack Reacher starring Tom Cruise is definitely interesting, but hearing that he and Christopher McQuarrie are developing a darker character is even more intriguing. While Tom Cruise has more than proven to be a versatile actor, a number of the characters he plays, especially in action films, tend to have similar qualities. Most are edgy but well-meaning heroes looking to fight for the greater good.
With this, it would be great to see Tom Cruise sink his teeth into a more sinister role, especially in an action-heavy film. And under the direction of Christopher McQuarrie, it could really be something special.
Christopher McQuarrie didn’t give too many specifics when discussing this “un-Tom” character, but let’s hope that the project comes shortly after he and Cruise complete their work on those Mission: Impossible sequels.
Mission: Impossible 7, Cruise and McQuarrie’s next cinematic venture, is set to hit theaters on November 19, 2021.
