John Krasinski Says He Wanted to End ‘Jack Ryan’ With an ‘Emotional Impact’ (Video)
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“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” comes to a close with its fourth and final season on Prime Video, and as star and executive producer John Krasinski was planning for the end, he wanted to ensure the final episodes not only delivered the action that fans have come to expect, but also an emotional kick.
“We wanted to keep the action and thrills and all that for the audience, but I think most importantly to me was — if we were going to end it — to make sure that the audience also had a culmination of these characters and these relationships that they connected to, and that they felt that they were saying goodbye as well,” Krasinski told TheWrap. “So I think for us, it was the emotional impact of making sure that we ended the show, rather than on some action-packed moment, that the moment was about all of us together.”
“Jack Ryan” Season 4 begins with Krasinski’s character serving as the new CIA Acting Deputy Director, and as he’s rooting out corruption within the CIA, he stumbles upon a threat decades in the making. As he looks deeper into a secret black ops team, he crosses paths with Michael Peña as Domingo Chavez and reteams with friendly faces (hello Michael Kelly and Wendell Pierce).
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Reflecting on a high point in making the series that first launched in 2018, Krasinski pointed to Pierce and the performance he delivered as Jim Greer in that first season.
“Certainly this relationship between [Jack] and Greer meant the most to me,” the actor said. “I genuinely mean, the first thing that I did with Wendell, the way he was playing it, and the way that it wasn’t just this boss and an employee relationship, that there was a complex character talking to another hopefully complex character, and that we were just having so much fun in the scene, I thought, ‘Wow, this is really, really good.’ These two characters, at least for Season 1, would be the fulcrum of the whole show. And when we did our first scene, I thought, ‘This might actually work.’”
For Pierce, the feeling was mutual.
“I feel the same. What’s really great about both of these guys is they’re always in the moment,” Pierce told TheWrap. “And at the same time, there’s always a rapport that gives you the freedom and the safety to play within that. Whatever you give, they’re gonna respond to. And that’s a rare thing because sometimes people have blinders on like, ‘This is the way I’m playing it and that’s the only way we’re going to play it.’”
Pierce said he felt a “grand sense of accomplishment” when all was said and done, especially given how global the production has been and the fact they shot the third and fourth seasons back-to-back.
While Season 4 is the end of the road for “Jack Ryan,” the series leaves the door open for additional adventures in this universe. Krasinski was tight-lipped about a return, but Michael Kelly is eager to keep playing Mike November forever.
“I never want to close this book, I love this book,” Kelly said of ending the series. “I want to keep reading it, doing it and being in it. I have a blast. It’s the greatest job ever.”
“Jack Ryan” premieres June 30 with two new episodes released every Friday through the series finale on July 14.
