I keep looking at this, and scratching my head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V69XYIRjKww
It doesn’t look like it’s bad, exactly. The actor doesn’t not look like Jack Ryan, or at least he looks like what Jack Ryan could possibly look like. I’m fine with that.
I guess what I keep freezing up on here is the realization that they’ve stripped the Cold War out of the character. Which makes sense, on one level. The Cold War ended about twenty-five years ago, just in case you weren’t feeling old tonight already. When I was in college and reading these books when they were still piping hot from the press What To Do About The Soviets was all topical and relevant to the current geopolitical situation; now, we’re people who don’t remember the Commies are getting old enough to run for President. Time moves on, and all that.
So… aside from money — all the money, to be sure — what point is there to having a character named ‘Jack Ryan?’ What non-Cold War aspect to his personality needed to be preserved, here? I’m legitimately curious as to what the answer is.
Moe Lane
I believe the abominable Sum of all Fears movie (and the slightly less bad Patriot Games) already conclusively proved that there isn’t one.
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I was very fond of the series back in the day (although it got a bit silly towards the end).
But characterization was not Clancy’s strong suit. Jack Ryan largely worked because he was a omnicompetent cipher that we could project ourselves onto. And while he protagged well enough, he was driven by events, not aggressively steering the plot.
With different enemies, in a different context, there’s really not much commonality to be had. You might as well call the character George Smiley.
The actor in question is John Krasinski, who played Jack Silva in “13 Hours”. I’m guessing his performance in that film won him this role, as he’d hitherto done mostly comedy.