Note: Contains spoilers for Jack Ryan season one.
Four months before Jack Ryan launched on Amazon Prime Video, the show had already been renewed for season two.
Created by Lost's Carlton Cuse and Prison Break's Graham Roland, the show is the fifth version of Tom Clancy's character to reach the screen – the first for TV – and sees John Krasinski stepping into the shoes of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Chris Pine to play the CIA analyst.
"With so much early anticipation for Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan from our customers and personally having the pleasure to preview the exhilarating, action-packed first season, we are excited to greenlight a second season of the series months ahead of its debut," said Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke.
If you've already binged on the first eight episodes, here's everything you need to know about the second season of Jack Ryan.
Related: Designated Survivor season 4: Everything you need to know
What to Read Next
Jack Ryan season 2 trailer: When can we see it?
On July 27, Amazon Prime released our first glimpse of Jack Ryan's sophomore season with a teaser trailer. The emphasis here was on action rather than plot, so we couldn't work out all that much about season two storylines from the footage we'd seen at that point.
Since then, a full-length trailer has now arrived online, which confirmed the official season two release date while also introducing some of the new cast members joining the show this time round.
Jack Ryan season 2 release date: When can we expect it?
Given the early renewal, season two was already in production when season one came out on Amazon Prime Video worldwide on August 31, 2018.
It's now been confirmed that the show will officially return to the streaming service on November 1, 2019.
Jack Ryan season 2 cast: Who's coming back?
The main trio of characters will be back in season two, so that's John Krasinski as Jack Ryan, Wendell Pierce as Ryan's mentor James Greer and Abbie Cornish as Ryan's girlfriend Cathy Mueller.
However, Ali Suliman won't be back as Islamic terrorist Mousa Bin Suleiman, after he was killed by Ryan in the season one finale as he attempted to assassinate the President and other leading political figures. That means we can also expect that Dina Shihabi won't be back either as Suleiman's wife Hanin Ali.
We will be seeing more of John Hoogenakker as Black Ops operative Matice, as he's been promoted to a series regular in season two.
There will be a host of new faces joining the cast in season two, led by Noomi Rapace as German intelligence agent Harriet 'Harry' Baumann and House of Cards star Michael Kelly as CIA field officer Mike November.
How will Rapace's character in particular get on with Ryan? Krasinski hinted at their complicated relationship during an interview with EW:
"I want to team up with her so bad, and probably have feelings for her, but also am constantly aware this is espionage,” says Krasinski. “This isn’t a date at the mall. This can go south at any time."
They'll be joined by Jovan Adepo as former special Navy crewman Marcus, Jordi Molla as Nicolas Reyes (a leader of a South American country), Cristina Umaña as politician Gloria Bonalde and Francisco Denis as senior government official Ubarri.
Tom Wlaschiha – Game of Thrones ' Jaqen H'Ghar – has also signed up for a key recurring role in the new season, playing Max Schenkel, a mysterious foreign operative who crosses paths with Jack.
But Tom Clancy's other best-known protagonist, John Clark, won't be appearing in the show, despite showing up in many of the Ryan books and on screen in the movie franchise. "No, [he won't be appearing]," Cuse told Digital Spy. "He's kind of his own separate thing."
(The announcement that Michael B Jordan would be playing Clark in two new films based on Clancy's novels explained why the rights to the character were all tied up.)
Instead, Matice (John Hoogenakker) fulfils some of the same functions as Clark. "When you watch your show, if you liked Matice, he's our version of that guy [Clark]," Roland explained.
Behind the camera, award-winning director Dennie Gordon will direct and executive produce three of the eight new episodes. Co-executive producer Phil Abraham will take the helm for two episodes as well and John Krasinski will join them both as another executive producer too.
In fact, Krasinski is the heart of this show, and that's something Amy Powell (the president of producing studio Paramount Television) made clear in an official statement prior to season two's release:
"From day one we only had one actor on our casting board for this series – John Krasinski. We are so excited that he is our Jack Ryan and we get to make another season with this incredibly talented team. We have been blown away by what our whole team has delivered for season one and we can’t wait for everyone to see it this summer."
Jack Ryan season 2 plot: What will it be about?
Early reviews have been mostly positive thus far, and Screenrant in particular revealed that this might be down to the show's new approach to Jack himself.
Rather than portray him as an all-powerful hero, season two will introduce us to "a more vulnerable — physically and emotionally — action star... who has an actual personal stake in the season’s story."
Speaking to EW about season two, Krasinski described the changes his character will go through in more detail:
"This is a guy who very openly stated, 'Here's all the work. Go get the bad guys. I don't want to be a part of it. But now his eyes have been opened and he can't go back."
Amazon Prime has now released an official synopsis for season two of Jack Ryan:
"In the second season of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, after tracking a potentially suspicious shipment of illegal arms in the Venezuelan jungle, CIA Officer Jack Ryan, portrayed by John Krasinski (A Quiet Place), heads down to South America to investigate.
"As Jack’s investigation threatens to uncover a far-reaching conspiracy, the President of Venezuela launches a counter-attack that hits home for Jack, leading him and his fellow operatives on a global mission spanning the United States, UK, Russia, and Venezuela to unravel the President's nefarious plot and bring stability to a country on the brink of chaos."
While some characters have continued, season two will be its own self-contained story like the first season. "We see each one of these seasons like a different book in the series," Cuse told The Hollywood Reporter.
Roland added: "You should be able to watch it in the same way that you can go to an airport bookstore and grab a Tom Clancy Jack Ryan book and never have read the previous one, and still enjoy it. In that same way, you should be able to enjoy our show. It shouldn't be so serialised that you can't jump in at any moment."
As such, season two will move on from terrorism to a dangerous, declining democratic regime in South America, with Ryan having to confront the forces in power.
"In the same way that Hunt for Red October is very different than Clear and Present Danger, we're taking these two characters of Jack Ryan and Jim Greer and putting them in a wholly different story — in this case, a political thriller in South America that's kind of an allegory for the decline of democracy," Cuse teased.
Of course, while that South American setting does make it seem like the second series will stick closely to the events of Tom Clancy's Clear and Present Danger, don’t expect it to. Season one veered from the source material quite radically, and season two looks set to do the same.
"We tried to adapt a book," executive producer/writer Graham Roland reveals. "We spent about a month on it that spring of 2015 after we took the project on."
But it quickly become apparent to him and Cuse that Clancy's novels are "geopolitical thrillers of their time", explaining that "trying to take a book that had been written 30 years ago and translate it to today was just not going to work".
“We see each season as like a book in a novel series," says Cuse. "The characters of Jack Ryan and Jim Greer carry forward, but the story otherwise is wholly different.
"[Season two is] a very different environment and a very different story, but still following these two central characters on another adventure."
"That was one of the main reasons for signing on to the show is when they pitched it to me," says Krasinski. "Maybe movies isn't the best place for Jack Ryan, because it's only two hours and Tom Clancy's books are so rich with detail.
"Long-form television, where you have eight parts to deal with the story... it's actually more like the book experience.
"I think it would've been hard to make another two-hour Jack Ryan movie that would really revitalise the franchise. But the idea of doing an eight-hour version for television allowed us to expand the notion of what the franchise was, and what it could be."
And Amazon certainly seems to agree – it green-lit season two before season one had even aired (following a 400% increase in subscriptions after an eye-catching Super Bowl trailer), and it's done the same thing again – season three has already been announced.
Some filming for season two took place in central London in October 2018 so the fact that John Krasinski was shooting in the instantly recognisable Leicester Square suggests that it will play a part in his trip to the United Kingdom…
Jack Ryan season one is streaming now on Amazon Prime. Season two will premiere on Friday, November 1.
Jack Ryan
![Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan - Season 2 [Premieres November 1]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1568883572-51zZexncYYL.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:* "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan - Season 2 [Premieres November 1]")
Berkley Books Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Action Pack: The Hunt for Red October/The Cardinal of the Kremlin/Patriot Games
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
Freelancer writer
Sam is an entertainment writer with NCTJ accreditation and a twenty-year career as a film journalist.
Starting out as a staff writer at Total Film, moving up to Deputy Online Editor, Sam was responsible for Total Film’s YouTube channel, where he revolutionised the magazine’s approach to video junkets, creating influential formats that spread to other outlets.
He’s interviewed a wide range of film icons, including directors such as David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay and Sam Raimi, as well as actors such as Meryl Streep, Nic Cage, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Anne Hathaway, Margot Robbie, Natalie Portman, Kermit the Frog, all of the Avengers and many more.
Sam has also interviewed several comic creators, including Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and he has a zombie cameo in The Walking Dead comic.
In 2014, Sam went freelance, working directly for film studios including Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Disney, as well as covering red carpet events for film marketing company PMA Productions.
Sam is the co-host, producer and editor of the Arrow Video podcast, which has seen year-on-year growth since its creation in 2017, gaining over half a million listens in that time.
His byline has appeared in outlets such as Yahoo, MTV, Dazed, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Good Housekeeping among others.
In 2012, Sam made it to the final of the Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year competition, and went on to become a filmmaker himself, directing three features that have all played major festivals, and secured distribution – starring in two of them.
Jim Carrey once mistook Sam for Johnny Cash, and John Carpenter told him to ‘Keep up the good work.’ He promises to try his best.
