Amazon's 'Jack Ryan' Series Gets John Krasinski
by EG
Reboot fever continues on TV this week, as Amazon Prime announced that its 10-episode series featuring Tom Clancy's famous fictional spy is going ahead with The Office star John Krasinski in the lead role. This latest reboot of the Jack Ryan franchise is the most recent example of a film property making the transition to television.
Kransinski will star as a CIA agent who is tasked with shutting down a terrorist plot during his first field assignment. This is a departure from previous version of the Jack Ryan story, which cast the character as a veteran agent well-versed in the intricacies of international espionage.
The revision of the character makes the choice of Kransinski for the role make more sense. The character has previously been played on film by Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine, and the baby-faced Krasinski wouldn't seem to be an obvious candidate to play a hardened secret agent.
Although both Baldwin's and Ford's versions of the characters enjoyed impressive box-office success, Pine's most recent portrayal, in 2014's Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, was a financial failure.
The series will be produced by Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel) and will debut on Amazon Prime at an unspecified future date.