Jack Ryan Season 4: John Krasinski Discusses His Final Season Arc
The highly anticipated fourth and final season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan might be coming to a close this Friday, but it’s a “bittersweet thing” for the show’s lead star and executive producer, John Krasinski. In an exclusive interview with Collider for the Prime Video flagship series from Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland, the political, spy thriller, which returns to its full theatrical form for a strong finish, finds Krasinski’s eponymous character at a crossroads. When chatting about Jack’s turn this season with his co-stars, Wendell Pierce and Michael Kelly, the three got candid about the end, while speaking about their characters’ greatest challenges in these final six episodes.
With the first two episodes now streaming on Prime Video, Jack heads on his most dangerous mission yet as the former U.S. marine turned intelligence officer is tasked with unearthing internal corruption with enemies on both foreign and domestic levels. Through his investigation that leads him to meet one of the CIA’s deadliest operatives in the Clancy original character of Domingo Chavez (Michael Peña), Jack discovers far-worse realities coming to light. With the help of Greer (Pierce), Mike (Kelly) and the guidance of CIA director, Wright (Betty Gabriel), the dangers that threaten their country are much closer to home than any of them could have imagined. It’s an arc Krasinski tells Collider in our exclusive Q&A that leaves his character with a “sense of betrayal” this season while his co-stars reveal their biggest character challenges, including Pierce’s more kaleidoscopic glimpse into Greer through one of the season’s more permeating themes.
COLLIDER: I’m so excited to talk with you guys! Congrats on the final season of Jack Ryan. Right off the bat, with this being the last season and having personally watched all of them—they are such explosive episodes, I was on the edge of my seat each time—there’s such a real sense of closure. How do you each feel about how Season 4 completes the Jack Ryan story?
JOHN KRASINSKI: I’m personally extremely proud of it. I think that it’s a bittersweet thing, the end of this show, because at the end of the show we wanted the last season to be exciting and thrilling for the audience, but we also wanted to, for the people who have been with us since Season 1, acknowledge the culmination of these relationships and these characters in a very genuine way that would mean something to them so that they were involved in saying goodbye as well. I think that we pulled that off. That was really, really exciting and clearly reflective of our interactions in real life. I mean, saying goodbye to these guys, luckily I don’t have to in my real life— I don’t know, Michael, we’re on the fence. But it’s truly been the greatest experience of my career and life, to get to work with these guys.
So Season 4 picks up from Season 3, in which there are consequences for Jack’s actions. So John, where is Jack heading this season, and what can we anticipate?
KRASINSKI: Well, I think for the first time, Jack realizes that the gray area that Greer taught him about is not always outside of the agency, that this time it’s inside the agency, and so I think there’s a sense of betrayal that Jack’s wrestling with. He’s not only trying to save the world, but he’s also trying to save his ideal of what he thought he was doing and what group he thought he was a part of, and making sure that there’s still hope for the good people to come out on top.
Wendell, another interesting aspect of this season is the relationship between Jack and Greer. It has evolved, but there’s a bit of a tug-of-war sort of relationship for him in terms of having a relationship with his son, and I’ve always felt like he is a bit of a dad sometimes to Jack. So I’m curious, with that dynamic, what’s the challenge that he’s facing this year, and what can fans expect?
WENDELL PIERCE: Well, through our research from the very beginning, talking to the real-life officers of the CIA, they said that the work can have a real strain on family life. In particular, the consultant that I’ve become friends with told me his personal story of how two marriages have fallen apart, and I wanted to reflect on that and how the connection with your kids is strained. So knowing that that is real and something that is very authentic, we wanted to make sure to bring that into what we already were taking to another level. Three-fold action, the intelligence, and then the humanity in the show, and add that with the family conflict, it was a new dynamic to the fourth season and final season for James.
And Michael, it’s interesting because your character is not an original [Tom] Clancy creation which means he can be anywhere, and maybe even in the spinoff, I’m not sure. But how fun has it been to create this personality from the ground up and then evolve his relationship with Jack and Greer?
MICHAEL KELLY: Oh, it’s been a blast. It’s been such a treat. To create it together, you know, I obviously didn’t have any say in the beginning when I was hired, but the way that the path that that character took through Season 2, by-the-book CIA guy to the end of the season where he’s gone, he leaves his job because he knows what Jack wants to go do is the right thing to do, and he’s gonna go do it with him. Then we were able to, you know– We made him what he became by the end of that second season, and it happened, I think, organically [and] the relationships that the three of us had sort of helped shape that character. So he’s been a lot of fun to play, I can tell you that much. [Laughs] I’d do it forever!
I feel like this is also a show where you guys have such strong bromances, so I’m sure this is gonna be something you’re gonna miss. It’s been so fun to see that! Before I do let you guys go, John, I’m such a huge fan of your writing and your directing, and I actually cannot wait, personally, for Imaginary Friends.
KRASINSKI: Thank you very much.
It sounds so phenomenal and really interesting, so I’m wondering if you can share anything about that, and what’s after IF?
KRASINSKI: Oh, man, I don’t know what’s after! IF was an idea I had about seven years ago and finally got to make it, and it is extremely personal. It’s a movie that I made for my kids because I don’t think they’re allowed to see A Quiet Place; Emily [Blunt] calls it PG-40, “You’ll get to see it when you’re 40.” So I had to make a movie that they could see, and I’m really, really excited about it. I mean, Ryan Reynolds is as good as it gets in every single way, shape and form, and this incredible phenom of an actress, Cailey Fleming, is in the movie. For me, it was just about what if we could tell a story about these time capsules. Imaginary friends are adorable and all those things, but they’re also time capsules of your hopes, dreams, and ambitions when you were the most fertile of a brain, and it never goes away. I think we’re told that we’re adults instead of what if you realize that you never stopped being a kid.
The final season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is now streaming on Prime Video with a new episode dropping every Friday.
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