Jack Ryan Series Sets John Krasinski to Star

Actor and director John Krasinski has taken the title role in Amazon’s upcoming Jack Ryan series

As announced late last year, Amazon is moving forward with plans for a Jack Ryan series, based on the character created by Tom Clancy. Today, Deadline has a major update, reporting that The Office and 13 Hours star John Krasinski has taken the title role. 

The Jack Ryan series will reportedly show Ryan “in his prime” as a CIA operative, providing a new take from the films and using the various books from author Tom Clancy’s bibliography as a jumping off point for a contemporary narrative.

Writer Graham Roland will executive produce the series along with Lost‘s Carlton Cuse is and Lindsey Springer of Carlton Cuse Productions. In addition, Platinum Dunes co-founders Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form will executive produce the Jack Ryan series with Mace Neufeld, who produced all five films based on the Ryan character.

Jack Ryan made his literary debut with the 1984 novel The Hunt for Red October and has gone on to appear in countless Clancy novels. The character has appeared in five feature films since the 1990 adaptation of Red October, with actors Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine all having taken on the role. The most recent film, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, was released in early 2014 and brought in $135.5 worldwide.

John Krasinksi can be seen coming up in The Hollars, which also marks his second feature film as a director following his 2009 David Foster Wallace adaptation, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. CS recently spoke with Krasinski at the 13 Hours press junket in Miami and you can check out the video interview right here.

You can also check out our previously-published Origins and Evolutions piece on the character of Jack Ryan in the gallery below!

(Photo Credit: Johnny Louis / WENN.com)

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Now in theaters, director Kenneth Branagh (who also stars as the film's villain) set Chris Pine as the Jack Ryan of a new generation, borrowing elements from the entire series to detail exactly how he went from a decorated Marine to working as an investment broker with top secret ties to the CIA.

Threat Vector

The final Jack Ryan book to see release during Tom Clancy's lifetime, Threat Vector (again co-authored with Mark Greaney) has the hero back in the White House, but he's now forced to deal with The Campus (where his son is still an active operative) being exposed while tensions heat up between China and Taiwan.

Locked On

Set one year after the events of Dead or Alive, Locked On follows Jack Ryan Jr. as he trains to become a field operative for The Campus and the elder Ryan as he decides to campaign to once again become President of the United States. Co-authored with Mark Greaney, Locked On hit shelves in 2011.

Dead or Alive

Co-authored by Grant Blackwood, Tom Clancy's 2010 novel brings together Jack Ryan, Jack Ryan Jr. and John Clark as they team to take down "The Emir," an Osama bin Laden-like terrorist figure who, in the alternate history of the Jack Ryan universe, was the mastermind behind 9/11.

The Teeth of the Tiger

Jack Ryan now a former President, the action shifts to follow his son, Jack Ryan Jr. as he's hired to work for "The Campus," a top secret organization created by the elder Ryan to covertly track and eliminate terrorist activity. Published in 2003, The Teeth of the Tiger was the last Ryan novel to be written solely by Tom Clancy.

The Sum of All Fears

Jack Ryan returned to the big screen in 2002 for The Sum of All Fears, an effective reboot of the canon that set Ben Affleck in the lead. Directed by Phil Alden Robinson, the blockbuster hit theaters just months after 9/11, but didn't suffer at the box office, grossing nearly $200 million worldwide.

Red Rabbit

Although it was published in 2002, Red Rabbit jumps back to Jack Ryan's early days as a CIA analyst. Working alongside British intelligence, Ryan has to work to prevent an assassination attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II on the part of the KGB.

The Bear and the Dragon

Jack Ryan heads into the 21st century with Tom Clancy's 2001 thriller that follows both the now President of the United States and John Clark as both men head to Moscow in the hopes of cooling tensions between Russia (the bear) and China (the dragon).

Rainbow Six

Another entry set in the Jack Ryan universe but not specifically about Ryan, Rainbow Six again follows CIA paramilitary operative John Clark and a top-level counterterrorist unit codenamed Rainbow because of the cultural diversity of its members. The "Six" of the title refers to both the sixth plan the unit undertakes as well as a term given to U.S. military commanders. Rainbow's Six is Clark himself. The 1998 novel also wound up launching a hugely successful video game franchise.

Executive Orders

In the aftermath of Debt of Honor, Jack Ryan has been named Vice President of the United States. It's not long, though, before a Japanese terrorist crashes a plane into the U.S. Capitol building, killing the Commander in Chief. Now it's up to President Jack Ryan to lead the country through one of its very darkest hours.

Clear and Present Danger

Harrison Ford and director Phillip Noyce return to the Jack Ryan franchise one last time for this 1994 big screen release. Plans originally called for Ford and Noyce to then adapt The Cardinal of the Kremlin with William Shatner even linked to a leading role. Instead, the franchise would continue only in print for the next eight years.

Debt of Honor

It's 1994 and Jack Ryan is now the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States just in time to deal with the machinations of Razio Yamata, a powerful Japanese industrialist who plans to take advantage of recent economic legislation to settle an old score.

Without Remorse

Although set in the same fictional universe as Jack Ryan, Tom Clancy's novel focuses on John Clark, a CIA paramilitary operative who appears in a number of previous books (played on the big screen by Willem Dafoe in Clear and Present Danger and by Liev Schreiber in The Sum of All Fears). This 1994 novels turns back the page to the Vietnam war, offering a detailed look at the moments that forever forged Clark as a hero.

Patriot Games

Taking over from Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford offers his first of two big screen appearances as Jack Ryan in director Phillip Noyce's 1992 adaptation of Tom Clancy's novel of the same name. Although the film received primarily positive reviews, Clancy himself felt that Patriot Games was not a true adaptation and went so far as to request that his name be removed from the credits.

The Sum of All Fears

Jack Ryan is headlining an initiative that could bring about the end of the Cold War at the beginning of Tom Clancy's 1991 entry into the canon. His job gets that much harder, however, when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine plots to detonate a nuclear weapon during the Super Bowl in the hopes of redirecting the blame and reigniting Cold War hostilities.

The Hunt for Red October

Jack Ryan heads to the big screen in director John McTiernan's 1990 adaptation of Tom Clancy's first Ryan book. Alec Baldwin plays our hero with Sean Connery starring as Captain Ramius and James Earl Jones starring as CIA Deputy of Director of Intelligence James Greer, a part he would reprise in film versions of Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.

Clear and Present Danger

It's 1990 and Jack Ryan, now Acting Deputy Director of Intelligence for the CIA, learns about a US cover-up that has taken place in Colombia as part of an effort to mask recent failures in the war on drugs. Defying Presidential orders, Ryan risks everything to save military officers trapped behind enemy lines.

The Cardinal of the Kremlin

More of a direct sequel to The Hunt for Red October, Tom Clancy's 1988 thriller finds Jack Ryan attending a diplomatic mission in Moscow. Secretly, however, he's also meeting with a top-level informer known as CARDINAL who, Ryan learns, is a high-ranking Russian Colonel who brings word of a secret Strategic Defense Initiative being undertaken by the USSR. It's not long, however, before both men become targeted by the KGB.

Patriot Games

A prequel to The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games was published in 1987 and has a slightly younger Jack Ryan going up against Irish terrorists calling themselves the Ulster Liberation Army, the leader of which comes after Ryan on a personal mission of revenge after the hero prevents the organization's attempt on the lives of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

The Hunt for Red October

Published in 1984, The Hunt for Red October is Tom Clancy's first novel to feature Jack Ryan. A CIA analyst, Ryan is called forward to help deal with Captain First Rank Marko Ramius, a Soviet Navy commander who claims he wants to defect to the United States aboard the Red October, an experimental nuclear submarine. Ryan has to race against the clock to determine whether or not Ramius' claims are true or if the USSR. is using a false incident to set a trap.

The Many Faces of Jack Ryan

Marine. Investment Analyst. CIA Operative. Husband. Father. President of the United States. Jack Ryan has been many things since his first appearance in Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October in 1984, starring in more than a dozen novels and five feature films. In our latest "Origins and Evolutions," ComingSoon.net looks back at the entire history of Jack Ryan, just in time for his latest big screen adventure, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, now in theaters.

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