The Office actor John Krasinski is heading back to the small screen, albeit as a character who is very different from the lovable Jim on the long-running NBC sitcom. Per Deadline, Krasinski is attached to star in a Jack Ryan TV series from Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse and Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes, which has just landed at Amazon Studios with a series commitment. While it’s not official just yet, the intention is to go straight-to-series with this Tom Clancy adaptation, with Krasinski’s casting sealing the deal for this thing to move forward.
The Jack Ryan character has been portrayed onscreen by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and most recently Chris Pine in a series of feature films that are mostly quite good. Baldwin’s turn only encompassed The Hunt for Red October, but Ford’s run of Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger was terrific. Affleck got his turn in the forgettable 2002 redo The Sum of All Fears, and Pine lead the recent reboot Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, which failed to muster much of anything.
And so Paramount turned its focus to television, with Cuse and writer Graham Roland conceiving of a story for the CIA agent that’s not an origin tale, but instead picks up during his prime as a CIA analyst. There’s no one Clancy book serving as the main inspiration for the Jack Ryan TV series, but all of the novels will inform the show as source material.
Krasinski most recently made his action debut in the Bay-directed 13 Hours, so it appears he’s keen on moving into the espionage genre with Jack Ryan. He’s a swell actor and seems like a fine fit for the character, so I’m all for it.
Cuse, meanwhile, continues to be one of the busiest people in TV as he currently serves as showrunner or co-showrunner on FX’s The Strain, A&E’s Bates Motel, and USA’s Colony. Jack Ryan will make it a quartet.
