After a middling reboot derailed plans for a new film franchise, Paramount is bringing Jack Ryan to the small screen, and the next actor to take a stab at playing Tom Clancy’s now iconic CIA hero will be The Office alum John Krasinski.
Housed at Amazon (through Paramount TV), the project currently has Carlton Cuse, Graham Roland, Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes and Skydance Media on board to bring it to fruition. So far, Amazon has granted the Jack Ryan show a series commitment and is planning to set it in the present day, when Jack is in his prime.
Krasinski will now be the fifth actor to play the famous character, following in the footsteps of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine. Ryan has seen considerable success across most of his films, with a collective gross of nearly $1 billion worldwide (un-adjusted for inflation). And while the most recent outing wasn’t terrible by any means, it wasn’t enough for Paramount to push forward with a sequel.
Though he’s not known as an action lead, Krasinski did recently dip his toes into the genre with Michael Bay’s 13 Hours, and has more than proven his talent with many other films – though most of them have fallen into the drama, comedy or romantic comedy genres. Of course, most of us know him from his time spent on NBC’s The Office playing one of television’s best characters – Jim Halpert.
Since then he’s had a bit of a tough time establishing himself as a bona fide leading man in Hollywood, but hopefully this new Jack Ryan series will help remedy that. Krasinski may not have a ton of experience dealing with action, but he’s a likeable and charismatic performer and we’re excited to see what he can bring to the franchise.
