Prime Video's R-Rated Action Thriller Is A Masterclass In How To Reboot A Franchise

Published Sep 29, 2026, 10:30 PM EDT

Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy. 

Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones).

It's no big secret that franchise reboots normally go horribly wrong. It seems that every other year, someone gets the bright idea to revive a beloved old IP in a new way. Recently, this has meant taking older film franchises and remaking them as long-form TV shows. On paper, this seems like a great idea. Television series have a lot more time and flexibility than feature films, but that doesn't mean such a project is a shoo-in.

There have been dozens of examples over the years, both of film-to-TV franchise reboots and general film-to-film reboots. In 2007, NBC released a dark and gritty reimagining of the 1976 sci-fi action series The Bionic Woman. A year later, in 2008, David Hasselhoff's Knight Rider (1982) got the reboot treatment (again from NBC). Both were absolute nightmares.

Every failed project has its own problem, but it's generally not that these stories never had any potential to begin with. There are so many once-great franchises that would benefit from a modern reboot, but it's critical that these be done for the right reasons and handled extremely carefully. Easily one of the best possible examples we can give is Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. This Prime Video series took a beloved but fractured classic film franchise and, by some miracle, actually made it better.

Prime Video's Jack Ryan Made Bringing An IP From Film To TV Look Easy

Jack Ryan is a character created by author Tom Clancy for what has come to be known as the Ryanverse. The first on-screen adaptation arrived in 1990, when Alec Baldwin played Jack Ryan in the film The Hunt for Red October. From there, Harrison Ford took over the role for the films Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). Next came Ben Affleck with 2002's The Sum of All Fears, and then Chris Pine in 2014's Shadow Recruit.

Overall, the film franchise has been considered a fair success, though some installments performed better than others. The process of bringing a new Jack to the screen for a new film could have continued indefinitely. However, Prime Video disrupted the process by placing John Krasinski in the role and transforming this story into a four-season TV show.

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan holds an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is nothing to sneeze at, especially for a TV reboot. Obviously, something about this project worked. In truth, it's no mystery. This show was made for all the right reasons, which is the first big step. Prime Video didn't aim to revolutionize that character and franchise. Rather, an opportunity arose to give this character's established development the attention it always deserved.

Jack Ryan's transformation from pencil pusher to skilled operative has always been a part of the story, but it was generally the rush-through-it origin element. Krasinski's Jack Ryan has a more gradual shift. He doesn't just fall into the role of field agent, but fights to earn it over a high-quality, deeply intriguing arc.

The Future Is Even Brighter For Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Than Before

What's even more impressive than the way Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan successfully transitioned a film franchise to television is that it managed to do the same thing in reverse. After all that long-form character development, it was easy enough to use this structurally sound foundation to launch a new film. Krasinski returned to play this character in the 2026 film Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War. The movie didn't perform quite as well as the show, but it successfully propped the door open for more movie sequels. While some reboots doom a franchise, this one guaranteed a future.

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  Wendell Pierce

  James Greer