INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

John Krasinski’s Newest Role: Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan

By Greg Hoadley
Published on: 11:49 PST, Apr 30, 2016

John Krasinski, whom fans remember from The Office as Jim Halpert, has just landed the role of Jack Ryan, the hero of Tom Clancy’s best-selling novels.

According to Deadline Hollywood, Krasinski will star as Ryan in a new TV series that will be broadcast on Amazon.

“While there is no official green light yet,” said the report, “the casting of Krasinski, who had been highly sought after by TV casting directors, would likely tip the scales and help net a series order.”

Clancy’s novel, Without Remorse, served as a prequel that took place in the early 1970s, and featured police officer Emmett Ryan as a side character in the story whom the reader later learns is Jack Ryan’s father. Throughout the series of novels, Ryan moved up from deputy director of the C.I.A. to eventually become become President of the United States, where he had to handle serious international conflicts.

But the new series, with John Krasinski as Ryan, will likely feature events that took place after Without Remorse and before the events of The Hunt For Red October— although it will be interesting to see how the new series will incorporate events from the novels since the movies changed the novel’s time line.

John Krasinski: Not the First Jack Ryan

John Krasinski will be the fifth actor to play Jack Ryan. He was first played by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt For Red October in 1990. But after a contract dispute over future films, Harrison Ford was selected to play Ryan in Patriot Games (1992) and Clear And Present Danger (1994). Ben Affleck played Ryan in The Sum Of All Fears (2002).

Alec Baldwin the first Jack Ryan
Alec Baldwin, with then-wife Kim Basinger in 2000, first played Jack Ryan in The Hunt For Red October. [Photo by Laura Walter/Getty Images]
In 2014, Chris Pine starred as Ryan in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit — unlike the earlier movies that were based on Clancy’s novels, this one was an original story. Deadline Hollywood noted that combined, these five movies grossed over $1 billion for Paramount Pictures.

This is not the first action role for Krasinski, 36; earlier this year, he starred in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, where he portrayed a member of a security team that was forced to guard a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, on September 12 that resulted in the death of four Americans, including U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens.

The film 13 Hours was directed by Michael Bay, and since his production company has a hand in creating the new Jack Ryan series, this will be a reunion for Bay and Krasinski.

Playing Jack Ryan — as well as in 13 Hours — is a departure for Krasinski, who played Jim Halpert on all nine seasons of The Office (2005-2013). While the series initially centered on Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell), the manager of Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company office in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Krasinski emerged as audience favorite Jim Halpert. Krasinski’s tenure was highlighted by his interactions with co-worker Dwight Schrute, who always got bested by Halpert in office pranks. Krasinski’s character had an office romance with secretary Pam, whom he eventually married.

Krasinski has appeared in other films like It’s Complicated, Promised Land — which Krasinski co-wrote with Matt Damon — and Aloha.

John Krasinski married actress Emily Blunt in 2010. They have one daughter, and are expecting another child.

What do you think? Is John Krasinski as Jack Ryan a good casting call?

[Photo by Fred Hayes/Getty Images]

Share this article: John Krasinski’s Newest Role: Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
amazon john krasinski michael bay tom clancy
More from Inquisitr