Joe Manganiello Suspects Tom Cruise Stopped Him From Being 'Jack Reacher'

Joe Manganiello's new memoir must be making some waves with Tom Cruise ... because the book speculates that the legendary actor screwed Joe out of a starring role ... and Joe thinks it's because he shares an ex with Tom -- Sofía Vergara!

The New York Post got its hands on an advance copy of Joe's new book, "Bloodlines," and, in it, Joe claims that his team believes Tom prevented him from landing the lead role in Amazon's "Jack Reacher" series because the two men once dated Sofía.

In his memoir, Joe writes that Amazon bosses and production heads were initially dead set on giving the role to him ... but then the part suddenly went to another actor.

Joe writes that his team speculated that Tom -- who played Reacher in two film versions of the book in 2012 and 2016 -- was behind the snub.

Here's how it all allegedly went down ... Joe writes that he met with one of the film's producers, Skydances' Don Granger, for an hour and a half. During their discussion, they allegedly talked about the backlash over Tom's small 5-foot-7 frame while the Reacher character in the book stands at an imposing 6-foot-5.

Granger told Joe, "You are the closest thing to Jack Reacher that I've ever met in my entire life . . . You look like Reacher is described in the books . . . You have his effortless intelligence."

In addition, Joe writes that Skydance owner David Ellison and Reacher book author Lee Child were "thrilled with my performance." 

But everything went downhill after Amazon boss Jen Salke got upset about being cut out of the casting process by "primarily male producers," according to Joe.

After Joe was given the bad news that he didn't get the part, his team suggested Tom, an executive producer on the TV show, might have put the kibosh on Joe and "vetoed my being cast on account of Sofía."