John Krasinski has said that there's 'nothing scarier' than creating a global conflict for a show like Jack Ryan and then seeing it unfold in real life 'way worse than we ever could have imagined'.
The actor, who is the fifth person to take on the titular role of ex-US Marine, is more than ready for season three of Jack Ryan to drop on Amazon Prime Video later this month - but he wasn't prepared for the TV show's 'crazy' new storyline to come eerily close to real global conflicts.
The third season of the action thriller series finds Jack Ryan in a tight spot when he decides to investigate a tip off about a secret plan to restore the Soviet Empire.
But things go awry during the mission when Jack is wrongly implicated in a larger conspiracy and accused of treason.
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Jack finds himself on the run from his former allies, crisscrossing across Europe as he races to stop a wave of conflicts, including a nuclear strike, that could result in a global catastrophe.
From nuclear threats to selfish world leaders, it's hard not to spot the resemblances between this new season and the fallout we've seen unfold between Russia and Ukraine this year - and John is the first to point them out.
The fact that idea for season three was thought up almost three years ago, only intended to be based on one of Tom Clancy's books, makes it all the more alarming that something so similar came true.
"It goes far beyond sort of weird or scary to see the correlations", said John Krasinski.
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"I think there's nothing scarier than coming up with a show that you think is larger than life on purpose, and that nothing will ever come close to being as crazy, and then seeing that, in reality, it's way worse than we ever could have imagined."
The US Office star went on to explain: "When we came up with the show, the idea that I came up with was I tried to put an homage to all of Clancy's books or movies into each season, just a tiny piece.
"This season, we decided we would base it on Red October, just the idea of going to Russia.
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"So I thought of that about three years ago. And then after that, it really was just about how can we take [the viewers] on a thrill ride and and have complex bad guys that are basically just making choices that are you know, clearly selfish choices, and having people all unwind those selfish choices?
"To have it happen, not only in reality, but while we were shooting we were in Budapest that close to the actual conflict it was. It's something that we don't take lightly. And it's something that is, is really horrifying."
Fans who have been waiting since 2019 for a third season of Jack Ryan will be thrilled to know that they won't have to wait long for the fourth season, since the cast and crew filmed parts three and four back-to-back. So thoughtful, aren't they?
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"We've actually already wrapped season four", said John.
"I think because of the pandemic, it was so long between seasons. And so we decided we made the conscious choice for the fans and for us to make sure that it's not that long again."
Though there's no word yet on when we can expect to see the fourth and final season hit TVs, season three of Jack Ryan officially launches on Prime Video on 21 December.
Topics: Amazon Prime, Film and TV, John Krasinski
Ali Condon