It might not be Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, but it’s definitely the next best thing. Peacock is getting ready to add an underrated Tom Cruise action film to its library next month.
Starting June 1, Peacock subscribers will be able to stream Jack Reacher. The 2012 action thriller is based on Lee Child’s 2005 novel One Shot and was written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who later took the reins of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Cruise takes on the role of the title character, who gets involved in a homicide case tied to a skilled military sniper accused of committing a mass shooting. Jack Reacher received generally positive feedback from critics, holding a 64% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it performed well at the box office, earning over $215 million worldwide on a $60 million budget.
Jack Reacher was followed by a 2016 sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, which was adapted from Child’s 2013 novel of the same name. In this action-thriller, Cruise’s Jack Reacher teams up with Army Major Susan Turner (played by The Avengers star Cobie Smulders), who has been wrongly accused of espionage, and together they uncover a dark conspiracy while on the run. Unfortunately, despite receiving praise for its action sequences and Cruise’s performance, Never Go Back was otherwise a disappointment for distributor Paramount, with the sequel failing to match both the critical acclaim (37% on Rotten Tomatoes) and box office ($162M) of its predecessor.
Read More: Alan Ritchson Isn’t Interested In a ‘Reacher’ Movie Because It Would “Do a Disservice” to the Books
Following the underwhelming box office performance of Never Go Back, the Jack Reacher franchise was reimagined for television, with Alan Ritchson taking over the lead role from Tom Cruise. With three seasons now completed, Reacher has become a major hit on Prime Video, earning strong reviews and impressive viewership numbers. “Reacher has become a phenomenon that continues to resonate with our global customers beyond our wildest expectations and we are thrilled to bring the series back for an additional season,” said Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon MGM Studios, in a statement confirming the show’s renewal for Season 4.
Although Christopher McQuarrie revealed to Empire in 2020 that he and Cruise had discussed a third Reacher film—potentially with an R rating—it looks like Prime Video has no plans to part with the franchise anytime soon. Alongside Reacher Season 4, which Ritchson recently described as both “the most intensely physical season yet” and “dare I say… maybe the best season yet,” the streaming platform is also expanding the universe with a new spinoff centered on Maria Sten’s character, Frances Neagley.
The spinoff, Neagley, will follow the private investigator as she seeks justice after the suspicious death of a close friend. “Using everything she’s learned from Jack Reacher and her time as a member of the 110 Special Investigators, Neagley puts herself on a dangerous path to uncover a menacing evil,” reads the official logline for the much-anticipated new series.
Jack Reacher lands on Peacock on June 1.
Source: Peacock