12 Movie Casting Decisions That Fans Couldn't Handle

7. Tom Cruise - Jack Reacher (Jack Reacher)

Tom Cruise is no stranger to being embroiled in contentious casting, what with Interview with the Vampire's own author Anne Rice initially deeming him miscast as Lestat, and many considering him unsuited to play Germany army Colonel von Stauffenberg in 2008's Valkyrie.

But Cruise's most recent controversy occurred when he was cast as Jack Reacher in Christopher McQuarrie's 2012 adaptation of Lee Child's much-loved thriller novel One Shot.

In the novel series, Jack Reacher is a military police vet with blonde hair and blue eyes, but most importantly, he's 6 feet, 5 inches tall, and weighs between 210-250 pounds.

It doesn't take a detective to figure out that Cruise is a far cry from every single one of these attributes, with his dark hair, green eyes, mere height of 5 feet and 7 inches, and weighing roughly 150 pounds. Fans weren't buying it, and went into the film with a strong air of scepticism.

Did It Work Out?: Yes and no. Cruise gave a characteristically entertaining performance, for sure, but never once did he really feel like the Jack Reacher of the source material.

Nevertheless, the film's success led to a (terrible) sequel, before Child decided to end the movie franchise and reboot Jack Reacher as a TV show.

Child said recently of Cruise's work on the films, "The idea is that when Reacher walks into a room, you’re all a little nervous just for that first minute. And Cruise, for all his talent, didn’t have that physicality."

You can't argue with that, really. Cruise was fine under the circumstances, but fans deserve better than such a loose, unfussed treatment of an incredibly popular character.