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The character of Jack Ryan has been portrayed many times on the silver screen—by Alec Baldwin, then Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and, most recently, Chris Pine. Now, with the Amazon Prime Video series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, available for streaming on Friday, Aug. 31, creators Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland are taking us back to the days when the iconic CIA agent was four years into an analyst position in the agency’s Terrorist Finance and Arms Division. The self-contained, eight-episode season explores the critical transition period from desk jockey to field operative.
Cuse and Roland were not daunted by the fact that Jack Ryan star John Krasinski is following in the footsteps of four other big names—notably Ford, whose famous take on the role influenced them. This is an original story not adapted from any of the Tom Clancy books, as the first four films were; it takes its cue as a new work, like the last film, 2014’s Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Once the show was sold, and then Krasinski was cast, Cuse and Roland tailored the role to their star, whose comedic chops in The Office and various animated films are well-known, but whom they felt had the physical prowess to tackle this role. (That was also proven recently in his smash hit A Quiet Place.)
“You try to make the role fit the actor, and we adjusted it to fit his particular blend of intellect, humor and physical abilities,” says Cuse. “The thing about Jack Ryan is he's a thinking man's hero. As we see him in our show, he's transitioning for the first time from being an analyst to his first operation. He's not the most competent guy. He doesn't have the skill set of a Jason Bourne. I think it's fun. He's very relatable and a very moralistic guy.”
Television is known for being a more dialogue-driven medium than film, where greater resources mean bigger explosions and crazier stunts and chases. Cuse has had past experience with larger-budget shows like Nash Bridges and Lost, both of which had expensive tabs every week.
“This is much more like a film,” acknowledges Cuse. “We shot this in cities all over the world. We were on three continents. We spent three months in Morocco, and we [shot in Paris](https://playboycomstg.playboy.com/read/revamped-pigalle-paris), Washington D.C. and Montreal. It's much more like an eight-hour movie than an eight-hour television show. The scope, scale and ambition were much more similar to a film, and we had the money and resources to not have some of those constraints that you're talking about.”
The first seven minutes of the pilot that were premiered at last year's New York Comic-Con set the tone for what the series will be like. After an opening sequence in which two young Lebanese boys witness the bombing of their town in 1983, we cut to modern day, where Jack is rowing along a river in D.C. He then bikes to work and nearly hits the car of a man who, unbeknownst to him, is about to become his new boss. D'oh. This is a younger, less-experienced Jack Ryan, who lives in a more high-tech world. Later on, once he detects a disturbing pattern in terrorist communication, Ryan is then launched into the field before he feels he is ready. That leaves a lot of room to modernize his character, since this is a brave new world he is stepping into.
It has been noted that women do not play major parts in Jack Ryan stories, but Dr. Cathy Muller, the infectious-diseases expert played by Abbie Cornish, seems to have a larger role in this incarnation, which is more reflective of the times we live in. “It’s exciting because her profession comes into play, because of the nature of the situation with this series,” says Cornish, without wanting to give away spoilers. “There is a threat at some point. I won’t tell you why or how or what because that is part of the show, and it’s toward the later episodes. But her intellect and her expertise in that field really come into play.”
Jack and Cathy meet at a party that her father is hosting: Sparks fly, he pursues her and they start dating. “Other than the books you may have read or movies you may have seen where they are married,” their relationship future “is to be determined,” says Cornish.
Another good hint that Cornish's version of Muller will play a stronger one than other filmed adaptations is that the *[Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri](https://playboycomstg.playboy.com/read/review-three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri-offers-black-comedy-and-shattering-performances)* actress spent a lot of time researching the role. In particular, she listened to numerous audio books about infectious diseases. But she did not realize at first how daunting the challenge was. Just prior to a hike in Los Angeles, she downloaded *An Introduction to Infectious Diseases* from Audible. “'Twelve hours and 35 minutes' came up,” she recalls. “I was like, 'Oh, my gosh—this is just the introduction? This is like 12 hikes!'” But she confesses to being “a bit of a nerd” and that she loved school, so it was exciting for her to dive-deep into the material.
“Our intent, like Clancy’s books, is to show that there are guys out there who we might never see or hear about who actually do things to keep us safe.”
Cornish has steadily built up her career through films. She points out that she has been making movies since she was 22, and now is 35, and the veteran performer wanted to give the Amazon series a go. Her last television experience, the three-episode 2014 miniseries Klondike, which was shot in Calgary, Alberta, was her first small-screen role in 11 years.
“For me, it was wanting to explore another area that I hadn't for a while,” explains Cornish. “And do it with the right people, and do it with a story that I felt was contemporary.” And also, do it with a character who viewers—assuming there is a second, third or even fourth season of *Jack Ryan*—would want to keep coming back to. “Cathy is a very wholesome, healthy and well-rounded American. She's an intelligent woman, and those are great shoes to slip into, [season] after [season]. I'm [also] a big fan of John, and love what Amazon is doing.”
When asked about her rap persona MC Dusk, which she first took on when she was a teenager back in Australia prior to her acting career, Cornish indicates that the itch is still there, but explains, “I just haven’t been on the stage in a little while.” Can we expect a Dusk-up in Jack Ryan? “Just beautiful sunsets,” she quips.
“I think we'll do the rapping in season two,” deadpans Cuse.
“Can you imagine?” muses Cornish. “Just as a joke.”
Potential musical escapade aside, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan looks set to bring the famed hero into the modern day and imbue him with a universal appeal. “I think there’s a relatability to Jack Ryan that you don’t find as much with a Jack Bauer, a James Bond or even a Jason Bourne,” notes Roland. “These are professional spies who are very well-equipped for every situation that they can come up against. There’s something about Jack that’s a little bit more of an everyman. He gets himself in over his head, yet finds his way out of it through his intellect rather than through his physical prowess.”
Cuse likens this new series to a film like *American Sniper* that invokes the idea that “we all hope there are guys like *Jack Ryan* that sit out there between us and the chaos in the world. It's a very positive portrayal of the military and espionage world.” He notes that there are plenty of other spy stories stocked with pernicious characters and double and triple agents. “That's not really our intent. Our intent, like Clancy's books, is to show that there are guys out there who we might never see or hear about who actually do things to keep us safe.”