To say that Michael B. Jordan's rise to worldwide fame has been fast would be an understatement. Thanks to projects like Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther and (for better or worse) Fantastic Four, Jordan has become a well-known Hollywood name, and his career definitely won't be slowing down anytime soon. If you need that reaffirmed, it's been announced that Jordan has been cast to play Tom Clancy hero John Clark in a new film series.
Jack Ryan is unquestionably Tom Clancy's most famous creation, but after leading five of his own movies between 1990 to 2014, Ryan has now migrated to the television realm and is currently being played by John Krasinski in his own Amazon series. That means it's finally time for John Clark to shine on his own, as Variety reports that Paramount Pictures has hired Michael B. Jordan to bring Clark to life in at least two movies. The first movie will be based on the 1993 novel Without Remorse and serve as an origin story for the character, and then Jordan's iteration will return for an adaptation of 1998's Rainbow Six. Akiva Goldsman, head of the Transformers universe, will be the John Clark film series' main producer, and Jordan, Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec are also attached to produce. Paramount is search for writers and directors to tackle Without Remorse as we speak.
Although John Clark was introduced to the printed page in 1987's The Cardinal of the Kremlin, Without Remorse detailed his backstory (namely how he joined the CIA), and since then he's become the second-most popular Tom Clancy character, appearing in 17 of the Ryanverse novels. In addition to his book appearances, Clark is also an important character in the Rainbow Six video game series. Michael B. Jordan will be the third actor to play John Clark on the big screen, succeeding Willem Dafoe in Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in The Sum of All Fears. Ryan Reynolds was previously in talks to play the character, but given how busy he is nowadays with Deadpool and other action-oriented projects, now the mantle has been passed to Jordan.
Given how prominent John Clark is in Tom Clancy's Ryanverse, it was only a matter of time before he struck out on his own, and now with Michael B. Jordan on board and set for at least two appearances, Ryan has the potential to rival Jack Ryan in fame. Needless to say that this also marks another impressive accomplishment for Jordan, as this is his second time leading a non-comic book-related film series, following behind the Creed movies.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on what's happening with the Michael B. Jordan-led John Clark movies. In the meantime, feel free to look through our 2018 release schedule to plan your trips to the theater for the rest of the year accordingly. Jordan can be seen next in Creed 2, which drops on November 21.
