Now that Amazon’s John Krasinski-starring Jack Ryan has a formal greenlight, it’s time to wonder what the new series brings to the table that decades of movies couldn’t. Krasinski himself offers a few hints, including movie-level budgets and stunts, and tackling a new ripped-from-the-headlines issue every year.

Even as production on the 10-episode series may not begin until January 2017, Krasinski offered a few Jack Ryan tidbits to Collider, including that old-standby of describing the series as a movie in ten parts. Krasinski argues it’s actually true in this case, given the budget involved:

We’re doing 10 episodes and I think the interesting part about it is exactly what you said, everything’s changed so much; the line between film and TV has blurred so much over the years, I think Jack Ryan is a product of that blurring so much that I think that they’re not even really considering it a TV show, they’re calling it a movie that’s being told in 10 parts; and that’s not just an argument of semantics, it’s actually true.

Carlton Cuse’s whole plan is we’re gonna shoot it on a movie budget, we’re gonna have the same stunts as movies, it’s gonna feel like a movie but you’re gonna watch it every week. His whole idea was he just felt that two hours wasn’t enough time to tell a Jack Ryan story because Tom Clancy’s books are so detailed and rich, and the character of Jack Ryan if he has a superpower is his intelligence, so there’s a lot of problem solving and things that take time, and that’s the beauty of the spy genre.

As to what might sustain the story year after year, Krasinski suggested that “Every year they’re gonna be different,” with ripped-from-the-headlines threats like ISIS forming a major arc of the first season. The streaming service previously stated the reboot of Tom Clancy’s popular CIA hero would spotlight a contemporary take on Ryan in his prime as a CIA analyst/operative. So reads the official synopsis:

The drama follows Ryan as he uncovers a pattern in terrorist communication that launches him into the center of a dangerous gambit with a new breed of terrorism that threatens destruction on a global scale. Carlton Cuse (Bates Motel, The Strain) and Graham Roland (Almost Human) penned the script and developed the project together.

The drama is a co-production between Paramount Television and Skydance Television. Platinum Dunes’ Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form exec produce alongside Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross with Mace Neufeld and Lindsey Springer also on board.

Over the years, Ryan has been portrayed by Alec Baldwin in 1990's The Hunt for Red October, Harrison Ford in 1992's Patriot Games and 1994's Clear and Present Danger, Ben Affleck in 2002's The Sum of All Fears, and most recently by Star Trek star Chris Pine for Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Amazon originals have certainly been growing in scope, but will Jack Ryan prove as movie-worthy as Krasinski claims?

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