Jack Reacher 3 has been on the table for years, but the real question is whether it could come to fruition.

Following Tom Cruise’s first two Jack Reacher movies, many fans would be very happy to watch a Jack Reacher 3. But will it ever come to fruition?

Based on Lee Child’s Reacher book series, Tom Cruise first played ex-Army special investigator Jack Reacher in 2012 and returned to the role in 2015’s Jack Reacher: Never Look Back.

The original film was a solidly reviewed outing (64% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes), earning $218 million at the global box office (per Box Office Mojo).

However, 2015’s sequel did not live up to those standards, only earning a 38% Tomatometer score and $162 million at the box office (per Box Office Mojo).

The Status of Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher 3

Jack Reacher
As Forbes reported in August 2024, both of Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher movies ranked in Netflix’s Top 10 most-watched movies after their arrival on the streamer on August 1. This has viewers wondering if Jack Reacher 3 has a chance of being made and released.

According to Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote and directed Jack Reacher before producing Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, a threequel may still be possible.

Speaking with Empire in 2020, McQuarrie had hoped to take the Reacher series in an R-rated direction, looking at how movies like 2016’s Deadpool and 2019’s Joker have gone down that road. He wanted to lean into “the brutality of [Lee Child’s Reacher] books” in terms of the violence and intensity:

“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.”

McQuarrie continued discussing Cruise’s work with the role, saying how Reacher is “a very un-Tom character” for Cruise. He also knows that the “franchise has moved on” with the Amazon Prime Video Reacher series, but he and Cruise still have ideas for what to do with their story:

“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.”

Additionally, Never Go Back director Edward Zwick mentioned in his memoir (via Variety) that he was interested in returning to the franchise. He blamed himself for not delivering what the audience wanted but mentioned having “a wonderful time working with Cobie Smulders.”

He also refused to blame Cruise for not being close to the same height as Reacher in the books, but if Cruise were to call about a third movie, he admitted he would “definitely pick up:”

“‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,’ which Tom Cruise and I made in 2016, fizzled at the box office. I blame myself (and my willing accomplice, Don Granger) for thinking the audience might enjoy a mash-up of ‘Jack Reacher’ and ‘Paper Moon,’ when in fact they just wanted more red meat. I had a wonderful time working with Cobie Smulders, and I certainly don’t blame Tom for not being [6’2”] — as the novelist Lee Child described his protagonist — and should Tom happen to call about making a third movie together, I’ll definitely pick up.”

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If Jack Reacher 3 were to be greenlit, it would still be plenty of time away from being shot and released.

Currently, Cruise is shooting his final Mission: Impossible movie, Mission: Impossible 8. He also has an outer space movie planned with Universal and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman (per Variety), which is said to feature him performing the first civilian spacewalk outside a space station (also per Variety).

In addition to those films, Cruise and Paramount have the green light for development on Top Gun 3 after 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick became the biggest hit of the year. Making nearly $1.5 billion at the global box office (per Box Office Mojo), it became the highest-grossing movie of Tom Cruise’s career by a wide margin.

Currently, Top Gun: Maverick co-writer Ehren Kruger is set to pen the script, although filming will likely not start for a while.

Another obstacle could be Cruise’s new deal with Warner Bros. (per Variety), which could have him working on other potential movies like Edge of Tomorrow 2 before Jack Reacher 3 would go into production.

Will Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher 3 Ever Release?

Although Cruise and McQuarrie still have plenty of hope to make Jack Reacher 3, the film does not appear to be in the cards.

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Along with the reasons listed above, it would have to compete with the already-successful Reacher series on Prime Video, which stars Alan Ritchson in the leading role.

That show is already well on its way to a return for Season 3 (see more about its story), which is due for release on Prime Video sometime in late 2025.

Considering this show and Cruise’s loaded schedule, it will be a long time before Jack Reacher 3 is considered a possibility. Even then, it appears unlikely that the movie will be made after the first two films’ subpar financial and critical performances.

Both of Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher movies are streaming on Netflix and Paramount+, and the Reacher series can be seen on Amazon Prime Video.