Exclusive: Harrison Ford Returning As Jack Ryan In Debt Of Honor
Harrison Ford will reprise the role of Jack Ryan for the first time since 1994 in an adaptation of Debt of Honor.
Harrison Ford will reprise the role of Tom Clancy’s central protagonist Jack Ryan in a new project based on the 1994 novel Debt of Honor. According to our trusted and proven sources, the legendary Star Wars actor will return to the role after literal decades, having last portrayed the character in 1994’s Clear and Present Danger. This will make Harrison Ford the first actor to return to Jack Ryan after being replaced, and, at 80 years old, the oldest actor to portray Tom Clancy’s everyman Marine/stockbroker/professor/CIA analyst who becomes United States President.
To date, the character has been played by five actors in film and television: Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October), Harrison Ford (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger), Ben Affleck (The Sum of All Fears), Chris Pine (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), and most recently, John Krasinski in the ongoing Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime Video. Arguably, Harrison Ford’s portrayal of the character is the most famous to date, coinciding with the actor’s 1990s run of hit films and Clancy’s original heyday in the publishing world.
However, it has been years since Harrison Ford last took up the mantle of Tom Clancy, making it an interesting choice for the actor. In recent years, the legendarily irascible Ford has shown himself willing to return to his most famous roles, first in the Star Wars sequel trilogy of films, a Blade Runner sequel, and in an upcoming (and reportedly final) fifth Indiana Jones film. We have also reported that a sequel to his 1997 action thriller Air Force One is in the works, so it really seems like Ford is going for an encore on all his greatest hits.
There is also a peculiar trend in Harrison Ford’s upcoming roles that this latest Jack Ryan project would fit right into. Ford will soon be portraying Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (replacing the late William Hurt) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; it has been revealed that since his last appearance, Ross has become U.S. President. Similarly, an Air Force One sequel will see him playing President James Marshall once again (presumably now a former executive-in-chief). And finally, Debt of Honor is the novel in which Jack Ryan first becomes President, so we could be seeing Ford as President in a whole lot of projects soon.
Presumably, there will have to be some changes in adapting Debt of Honor to star Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan. The original novel took place in the 1990s and primarily dealt with a fictional second war between the United States and Japan, which ultimately results in Jack Ryan first being appointed Vice President (after the previous VP resigns due to scandal) and then becoming President when an explosive airplane attack on the Capitol kills the previous chief executive, most of Congress, the Supreme Court, and basically the majority of the government.
Given that Debt of Honor is a borderline apocalyptic, 9/11-like scenario, it will be interesting to see how much is retained to bring Harrison Ford back into the world of international espionage.
