The newest spy thriller to hit the streaming services is loosely based on Tom Clancy’s 1993 novel, Without Remorse. The book gained all the attention back when it was announced that Michael B. Jordan had been roped in to play John Kelly. Now, the movie may be getting a mixed reception from the critics, but the fans all praise Michael B. Jordan’s new avatar.
Although Without Remorse was initially planned as a separate side of Tom Clancy’s universe starring Michael B. Jordan, the fans couldn’t help but notice its interesting ties with Amazon’s Jack Ryan.
Let’s clear all your confusion and jump into the linkages.
Is Jack Ryan connected to Without Remorse?
Without Remorse has a direct connection to Jack Ryan, although the patriotic spy doesn’t appear and isn’t mentioned in the new film at all.
Without Remorse, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, is loosely based on Tom Clancy’s 1993 novel. It’s touted as a new origin story for John Clark (Michael B. Jordan), a black-ops operative who was formerly known as the elite Navy Seal Senior Chief John Kelly.
Jack Ryan is currently portrayed by John Krasinski in Amazon Prime’s titular series and has already had three seasons, with a fourth and final season to begin production soon.
Jack Ryan has previously been portrayed by several A-list Hollywood actors, such as Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine in various iterations of the spy.
On the other hand, John Clark has been played by Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber. In these previous films, we have seen Clark work alongside Ryan, even though they have sometimes been antagonistic toward each other.
Without Remorse includes a direct nod to the Jack Ryan side of Tom Clancy’s universe, which relates to a new character Karen Greer, the niece of James Greer. James Greer is Jack Ryan’s CIA mentor and was played by James Earl Jones in the films, although we saw Morgan Freeman play a reworked version of Greer named William Cabot in The Sum of All Fears. The brilliant Wendell Pierce plays the role of James Greer in Amazon’s Jack Ryan series.
The biggest connection between the movie and the series is Karen, who serves a similar function for John Kelly as her uncle James does for Jack Ryan. She is his senior officer who supports him but questions his methods because she also has to answer to bureaucracy. Like Wendell Pierce’s Greer, Karen also backs John Kelly up in the field.
The Robert Ritter connection
Another Jack Ryan character reboot for which Without Remorse should be credited is that of Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell).
In Without Remorse, Ritter has been cleverly reimagined as a younger CIA agent who provides intel and backup field support for Lt. Commander Greer and John Kelly’s Navy SEALs unit.
Bell’s version of Ritter is at odds with John Kelly in Without Remorse. He is untrustworthy, but Ritter is also eager to use everything he knows to his advantage to climb the ladder in the CIA.
What does the future hold for the Clancyverse?
Tom Clancy was ahead of his time, with his many novels that took place within a shared universe, as opposed to just doing a bunch of more traditional sequel stories, like most novel series.
The film adaptions were always one-offs that never really added to anything as a whole. But that seems to be changing now as Amazon and Paramount might be firing up a Clancyverse built to more modern standards.
It has been speculated that if a Clancyverse is indeed on the cards, it’s starting with a two-pronged approach, first with Jack Ryan and now Without Remorse. What the future of this Clancyverse will be, only time will tell!
About Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (also known simply as Jack Ryan) is an American political action thriller television series based on characters from the fictional “Ryanverse” created by Tom Clancy that premiered on Amazon Prime Video.
The first season follows the CIA analyst as he discovers a string of dubious bank transfers carried out by a rising Islamic extremist named Suleiman. The second season sees Jack in the middle of political warfare in a corrupt Venezuela. The third one will see Jack on the run and in a race against time.
Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland created the series, and Cuse serves as an executive producer alongside John Krasinski, Michael Bay, and Mace Neufeld, among others. Krasinski also stars in the series as the title character.
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