Exclusive: Jack Ryan’s ending didn’t satisfy John Krasinski, so he made Ghost War

It has been nearly three years since Prime Video’s adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan concluded, but lead actor John Krasinski wasn’t satisfied.

Naturally, he made a movie. Krasinski co-wrote the script for Ghost War, a continuation of the Prime Video series. Of course, he also returns as Jack Ryan.

Ghost War has been years in the making, and the former Office star seems proud of his work. Speaking to ClutchPoints at the junket for Ghost War, Krasinski explained the itch he had to keep Jack Ryan alive.

“The idea for me was I knew I wanted to continue playing the role. I’ve had a blast playing this role, and as the show was ending, I kinda felt I wasn’t done with the character,” Krasinski explained. “I thought that was a great way to start the movie.”

Why did John Krasinski feel the need to return to Jack Ryan with Ghost War?

Now, Ghost War isn’t a new idea for Krasinski, per se, who said he has “had the idea for the movie for a few years now.” And the storyline that Jack isn’t “done with the CIA” represented how he felt about the Jack Ryan franchise.

The Quiet Place director related to his character’s feelings. Krasinski felt that he still had a lot to give to the franchise, and he wanted to make it happen.

“Jack feeling like he can still make a difference was similar to how I was feeling about doing the show, so that’s how it led into [the movie],” he said.

Krasinski co-wrote the script with Aaron Rabin, a “fantastic writer.” He “loved” working with Rabin, and Krasinski’s years of experience in the franchise helped him develop the movie.

“We’ve been in this world for so long, so it was great to develop this next chapter. For me, this much more tension, this much more action was so exciting,” he raved. “I loved doing the long-form storytelling that we did on the show, and I think in doing so, we really developed these relationships and the specificity of the world that I thought we were ready to compress it, make it a little more pressure cooker and a little more explosive, no pun intended… or was it?”

Does John Krasinski want to make more Jack Ryan movies?

Has that itch to return to the role been scratched? Krasinski’s appetite for the Jack Ryan franchise doesn’t appear to be satiated, even after Ghost War.

“The format is so different that it just feels like a whole new avenue to go with the character,” Krasinski reasoned. “Let’s be honest: we all grew up watching the Harrison Fords and Alec Baldwins doing the two-hour version. There’s something more exciting about it, or I should say in a different way. It’s a different kind of energy that I would definitely love to do again.”

Naturally, the IF director has “some ideas” for a sequel. The key driving force behind a potential sequel is Sienna Miller, who plays a new character in the Jack Ryan series, Emma Marlow. Miller fills a void that Krasinski and his co-star, Michael Kelly, have felt was needed.

“I think that’s a character that we’ve been missing in this world for a while,” the Jack Ryan actor acknowledged. “We’ve had some great female characters for sure, but I think someone who would be in the field with us and go toe-to-toe with Jack as an adversary, but also as a really strong female presence out in the field of spy work rather than just back at Langley was massive. She (Miller) stepped into our world in such a huge way.”

A sequel to Ghost War hasn’t been confirmed yet. However, Krasinski might’ve somewhat let the cat out of the bag when concluding, “I think we’re all excited to get that band back together.”

How does his co-star feel about returning?

His co-star, Kelly, is similarly anxious to return to the franchise. He appeared in 20 episodes throughout the Prime Video series’ four-season run.

Originally, they hired him to play Mike November in Season 2. However, upon joining the cast, he has been begging Krasinski for “one more” return. 20 episodes and a feature-length movie later, it’s safe to say he got his wish.

Kelly joked that he’s “expensive” to hire, but he has willingly come back. Even Krasinski joked that Mike’s fate in Ghost War is “how we cut down on budget.”

Jack Ryan’s cast is really like a “family”

Kelly shares a tight bond with Krasinski, remembering becoming close friends within “a couple months.” They’re so close that after being asked if the itch for Krasinski to return to the franchise has been scratched, Kelly began scratching the Jack Ryan actor’s arm.

Kelly described the Jack Ryan cast as a family, a familiar trope for actors. However, his bond with Krasinski appears genuine, and that continued when making the feature film.

He joked that doing a movie frees him for “more time with my family,” before Krasinski butted in to clarify that he meant him. “We’re a family,” he clarified.

Making a movie vs. a streaming series

Despite how big the Jack Ryan Prime Video series was, a feature film is always bigger. Luckily, it was still business as usual for Kelly, though he acknowledged the scope changed.

“In so many ways, it felt the same,” Kelly said. “But there was this element of it feeling bigger. Obviously, a lot of it had to do with bringing in Sienna and Max [Beesley] and JJ [Field]. Sienna’s just an incredible addition to this cast for us. She fit in day one, hour one, literally. We are a family, and she instantly became part of it.

“We knew we were making something special, and we knew we were making something bigger than what we had been doing. It was just a blast,” he continued.

The origins of John Krasinski and Michael Kelly’s tight-knit bond

Some of the familial bond between Krasinski and Kelly comes from mutual admiration. Even if Kelly didn’t want to acknowledge his theater background, it’s something he shares with Krasinski. He even raved about The Office star’s Off-Broadway production of Angry Alan and one of Wendell Pierce’s recent productions.

Krasinski recalled talking to one of the Jack Ryan producers. Kelly is someone with whom he clicked immediately. It doesn’t sound like he could envision the series succeeding without Kelly.

“The night we saw Michael come into the restaurant down in Colombia, it was instantaneous. Not that he would fit into our television world, but that he would fit into our personal world,” Krasinski said, gushing over his co-star. “He has been such an amazing addition to not only the show as a character, but as an energy. If you’re a fan of the show, you can see that this character was something we really needed. This sort of off-the-cuff, wild, neckerchief-wearing-human is [someone] that we all need in our lives.”

Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War is streaming on Prime Video.

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