John wrote an article earlier today that talked about aging characters bringing their iconic roles back in sequels as older versions of themselves. Well he wasn’t the only one thinking it. Synapses are firing in the braintrust behind the Jack Ryan series of films to bring Harrison Ford back in series’ titular role.
Ford tells The Sun newspaper that Jack Ryan is a character that’s actually been allowed to age in the books, so it makes sense that his 65-year-old ass would still fit into the agent’s trousers.”That’s a character that I think you could revisit acknowledging the passage of time and his increasing age. It wasn’t age dependent; that character and his experiences were chockablock full of recipes for good engaging movies, so that’s a character I wouldn’t mind revisiting.”
Though the next film won’t be based – Paramount probably realized he wouldn’t be happy with whatever they did anyway – on any of Tom Clancy’s novels, the Ryan character ultimately became President of the United States in some of the later novels.
And this isn’t just Ford talkin here, Mace Neufeld, producer of the Ryan stories is eager to make this happen.
Interestingly enough if they do follow a parallel to the books, Jack Ryan does age, and eventually becomes president (stepping up from Vice President after a 747 lands in the White House killing the Commander and Chief) so an older Jack Ryan would be appropriate. This wouldn’t be the first time Harrison Ford played the President of the United States either.
Would it still have the following without being based on one of the books? Would that increase the following?
With Ford proving he can play an aged version of one of his own characters, it makes sense for them to jump back on the Harrison Express and get as much out of them while they still can.
