5 Years Later, Taylor Sheridan's Tom Clancy Adaptation Has Somehow Failed To Launch A Franchise

Published Sep 18, 2026, 12:35 PM EDT

Padraig is a Senior Features Writer and has been part of Screen Rant since 2017. Padraig is a writer, editor and retired Game of Thrones extra who has been writing about movies and TV online for over a decade. He has also written for The Irish Times, Den Of Geek, Little White Lies and many more. It's pronounced Paw-rick, BTW.

In 2021, Taylor Sheridan adapted one of Tom Clancy's best thrillers for a movie that was meant to kickstart an entire franchise - so where is the sequel? The Jack Ryan movie franchise sure is an odd one, given that pretty much every entry recast Ryan himself each time; only Harrison Ford played the character more than once on the big screen in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.

Of course, John Krasinski would later inherit the role for all four seasons of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, and its 2026 film spinoff Ghost War. While Taylor Sheridan is known for his original screenplays, he briefly dabbled in the world of Tom Clancy by adapting the late author's 1993 novel Without Remorse. This book gave Ryan's buddy John Clark an origin, and while it was soon snapped up by Hollywood, it took over 20 years for a movie to arrive.

Over the years, actors like Tom Hardy and Keanu Reeves circled Tom Clancy's Without Remorse until Michael B. Jordan was eventually cast. Considering the book was set during the Vietnam War, the story needed revising and updating, so director Stefano Sollima asked his pal Sheridan to revise a previous draft to bring it into a modern-day setting.

Without Remorse Was Supposed To Launch A New Tom Clancy Movie Series

On paper, Without Remorse has so much going for it. In addition to Jordan, the cast includes Jodie Turner-Smith, Guy Pearce and Colman Domingo, while director Stefano Sollima had already worked with Sheridan on Sicario: Day of the Soldado. The movie also created some confusion on initial release, considering it arrived on Prime Video, which is also home to the Jack Ryan series.

Stefano Sollima was once set to direct an adaptation of the best-selling Call of Duty franchise in 2018, but this iteration was later canceled. Now, Taylor Sheridan is attached to co-write a Call of Duty movie, which Peter Berg will direct.

The movie doesn't feature Ryan or any other character featured from the show, leading to viewers wondering if the two properties were connected. In short, no. Without Remorse was produced by Paramount and was intented to have a theatrical release, but owing to the COVID pandemic, the studio made a deal to release it directly to Prime instead. The absence of Ryan ultimately comes down to rights issues.

Naturally, there were hopes Without Remorse would lead to a new franchise, and it ends with a sequel tease that Jordan's Clark would be leading the multinational special ops task force "Rainbow" next time. Five years on, that follow-up is looking very doubtful.

Without Remorse 2 Is Unlikely To Happen

Image via Amazon MGM Studios

Without Remorse arrived to apathetic reviews, though it did well enough on Prime for work to commence on a sequel. For those who felt underwhelmed by the original entry, the sequel got a major boost in 2023 when John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski came on board Rainbow Six. Much has changed in the years since, however.

Jordan's career has gone to new heights thanks to Creed III (which he also directed) and the acclaim that greeted his horror epic, Sinners. Next on the slate is his highly anticipated remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, while he will co-lead Miami Vice '85 with Austin Butler. In short, Jordan will be real busy in the near future, so he might rethink finding time or a belated sequel to one of his lesser-received movies.

Stahelski himself has his Highlander remake on the horizon, in addition to a possible John Wick 5. It now feels like whatever momentum the Rainbow Six movie once had has slowly dripped away, and it's clearly no closer to the starting line than it was in 2023.

Without Remorse Has One Of Taylor Sheridan's Weakest Screenplays

Sheridan might be a great writer, but it must be underlined that he's not blameless when it comes to Without Remorse. Perhaps it was simply a work-for-hire gig for the Yellowstone creator, but the adaptation is saddled with an inert screenplay that is bogged down in clichés and predictable twists.

The movie wisely taps into the burning rage felt by Jordan's Clark, leading to the best scene where he performs an interrogation inside a burning vehicle. That said, outside some competently staged action, Without Remorse is a generic military actioner propped up by its great cast. The wit and introspection Sheridan brings to so many of his other projects is entirely absent in this Clancy adaptation.

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  Jamie Bell

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  Jodie Turner-Smith

  Karen Greer