Amazon has lined up for the Dad TV challenge lately and has hit the mark with Reacher (starring Alan Ritchson as the Big Guy), Bosch, and Outer Range (starring Cowboy Josh Brolin and a giant hole in the ground). The retailer-turned-streamer cornered the dad-appeal market early, too, with John Krasinski starring in a TV adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.
The ridiculously popular show turned into one of Amazon’s home-run series with Krasinski locked in for four seasons, which concluded last summer. As well, the streaming service has been known to keep franchises going into spinoff mode (i.e., f*cking Bosch), and Jack Ryan paved the way for an offshoot series starring Michael Peña. Viewers got to know his character, Domingo Chavez, in the fourth season of the principal series, so is the spinoff still happening as predicted? Let’s check in on the latest.
Plot
Chavez’s entrance into the Ryanverse was first reported in May 2022 by Deadline, which revealed how the character would become a fixture in Jack Ryan‘s fourth season with “the potential spinoff [being] in early stages, with no firm concept or a script yet.” The appeal of using this character to extend the Ryanverse is obvious: Chavez surfaces in 22 Jack Ryan Universe novels from Tom Clancy and seven titles from the core book series of Jack Ryan.
Those books include Clear and Present Danger, which received a 1994 movie adaptation starring Harrison Ford and included Chavez as portrayed by Raymond Cruz. The character is a prolific and well-traveled CIA agent who embarked upon missions Columbia and Iran, but it was his United Kingdom-based tenure where he rose as a Rainbow Six-designated executive officer in the secret counterterrorist Rainbow group. The “stealthy” Chavez’s entrance onto the Jack Ryan show was meant to help bring the title character’s final TV mission to a close with Krasinski’s character attempting to zero in on the ultimate source of agency corruption and calling in Chavez by setting the foundation (“you might be the deadliest operator the CIA has ever employed”) for what to expect from the character.
Going forward, there’s no shortage of Jack Ryan novels — not only Clear and Present Danger, but also The Sum of All Fears, Debt of Honor, Executive Orders, Command Authority, Full Force and Effect, and Commander-in-Chief — from which a Rainbow Six series could draw from. However, there’s been no update from Amazon since Jack Ryan ended on whether the lone wolf character of Chavez would continue to carry the torch. Here’s what Michael Peña — who, let’s get real, probably wasn’t allowed to reveal what he might have known — told Collider ahead of the fourth season when quizzed about a spinoff:
As Season 4 introduces Clancy’s original Rainbow Six character in Peña’s Domingo “Ding” Chavez for its final season, the lone-wolf character is described by the actor as a “stealthy kind of quiet guy.” But whether fans will be seeing more of him after the six-episode arc in the Prime Video series’ final season is yet to be evaluated. “I don’t know,” Peña told Collider. “It’s up to the fans and up to Amazon. There are a lot of people that have to do certain things, but if people like it, maybe they’ll chime in and say, like, ‘Hey, we want some more!’ So, you know, we leave it in their hands.”
Sounds like it’s time for viewers to make some noise for an update.
Cast
If this happens, Michael Peña would continue his role as the TV version Domingo Chavez. And since the character appears in over 20 of Tom Clancy’s novels, there’s no telling which story that the series would use as a launching point or what other characters (and potential actors) would be involved.
Release Date
Amazon never wasted any time cranking out the Jack Ryan series, so if this project ends up being confirmed, late 2024 or early 2025 would be possible.
Trailer
Not a chance. Yet.