Tom Cruise's action thriller film "Jack Reacher" was a surprise box office success so director Ed Zwick, who previously worked with Cruise in "The Last Samurai" and will helm the "Jack Reacher" sequel certainly has a lot on his plate.

But Zwick has nothing but optimism for his new project. "The nice thing about the franchise to me is that it's almost an anthology," he told Collider in an interview. "He gets involved in something very different in each of those books with a different cast of character and a different set of circumstances of things that happen to him. I like to think this will satisfy those who really like the character, but they will see him and see this very much as a standalone movie as each of them hopes to be."

Cruise is hot off the heels of his latest action flick "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation," and many fans are quite excited to see what crazy action stunts the actor has in store. There are a lot of expectations attached to him reprising his role as Jack Reacher, but Zwick has clarified that they will not be trying to replicate "Rogue Nation."

Instead, what Zwick and the rest of the team hopes to do is apply the same realistic approach as the first movie. "It's going to be very grounded. The emotions are grounded. The action is grounded. Mission: Impossible 5 is an extraordinary accomplishment of a very particular kind, and I think we would be foolish to try and replicate it for a different genre, so this is going to be itself," the director explained.

The plot of "Jack Reacher 2" will be based on the 18th novel of the series written by Jim Grant, who goes by the pen name Lee Child entitled "Never Go Back." In it, Reacher goes back to Washington D.C. to meet up with an old flame, only to discover that she's been arrested, and it is up to him to unravel the mystery behind her arrest.

Just to make sure he understands the sense of the character, Zwick read the "Jack Reacher" novel himself, and he said that he will try to remain faithful to "Never Go Back" but still try to make it his own movie.

He also revealed that while there won't be a stunt as "grand and operatic as hanging from a plane," there will still be "something in this in particular" that should impress audiences.