Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

It’s taken awhile for Amazon’s Jack Ryan prequel series to get off the ground, and with John Krasinski in the title role, we’re finally starting to see more cast. First to join the newer, younger, funnier Jack Ryan is none other than Abbie Cornish in a leading role.

Now that Amazon’s John Krasinski-starring Jack Ryan has a formal greenlight, it’s time to wonder what the new series brings to the table that decades of movies couldn’t. Krasinski himself offers a few hints, including movie-level budgets and stunts, and tackling a new ripped-from-the-headlines issue every year.

Just the other day saw Carlton Cuse’s Jack Ryan updating to reveal that John Krasinski would be allowed to keep things a bit light, but the project’s latest turn is no laughing matter. Amazon Tom Clancy drama Jack Ryan has an official series order, bringing the departed Office star back to the small screen to report for duty.

Michael Bay’s 13 Hours definitely pushed John Krasinski a bit closer to action hero than Office-mate, but one wouldn’t hire the erstwhile Jim Halpert if not some of those classic camera-mugs, right? We’ll find out when Krasinski leads Amazon Tom Clancy drama Jack Ryan, as showrunner Carlton Cuse says the actor will “bring his particular brand of humor” to the CIA hero.

Former Office star John Krasinski has been skewing closer to action hero than TV desk jockey in recent years, and the next mission will offer a merry mix of both. Krasinski will return to TV (ish), taking the title role of Amazon’s new Tom Clancy CIA drama Jack Ryan.

Well, that was fast. Just one week after we learned LOST alum Carlton Cuse had in mind a Jack Ryan TV series based on Tom Clancy‘s enduring CIA hero, Amazon swoops in with a straight-to-series order. Will a TV prequel finally revitalize the character?

The most recent attempt to bring Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan into the modern movie era didn’t quite garner keep Shadow Recruit in the spotlight, so where better to go than TV? Networks are reportedly competing for a new series based on the CIA super-analyst, as envisioned by LOST alum Carlton Cuse and Michael Bay.

‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,’ the latest (but by no means the first) attempt to reboot Tom Clancy’s long-running spy series, opened in theaters last January to mediocre reviews and box office. According to Box Office Mojo, it is the 44th-highest-grossing movie of 2014, right behind ‘Planes: Fire & Rescue.’ Yes, in a race between the latest version of a classic espionage franchise and the sequel to the spinoff of ‘Cars’ (that stars the voice of Dane Cook), the sequel to the spinoff of ‘Cars’ (that stars the voice of Dane Cook) won.

In the first truly busy weekend for new releases in 2014, Ice Cube and Kevin Hart took the competition, bent them over the knee and gave them a good spanking. Okay, you probably didn't want the image of those two spanking animated squirrels, demonic babies or Chris Pine in your head, but how else are we going to talk about the opening weekend for 'Ride Along'?

Some franchises leave an indelible mark on you during your formative years, and inspire passionate, lifelong devotion from their fans – but is Jack Ryan really one of them? Given the messy lineage of the character on screen, played now by four separate actors (Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and here, by 'Star Trek Into Darkness' star Chris Pine), not to mention the fact that the films ar