Jack Ryan season 2: Hit Amazon Prime TV show returns - NEWS.com.au

After quashing a Syrian terrorist attack and threat to the US president’s life in season 1, Amazon’s fan-favourite action thriller Jack Ryan is back.

Co-produced by Amazon Studios, Paramount Television and Skydance Television and premiering exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, the eight-episode second season “will take our unexpected hero to a new, exciting and dangerous world”, said Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke.

Based off Tom Clancy’s best-selling novel series, the show’s second season was greenlit before the first had even aired last year.

An origin story for the Jack Ryan character, the 10 episodes of season 1 followed the erstwhile desk-bound CIA analyst as he chased a terrorist he compared with Osama bin Laden.

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Season 2 picks up some time after the events of season 1, which ended with CIA officer Ryan – played by The Office’s John Krasinski – being offered a chance to stay in the field working for his mentor, James Greer (played by Wendell Pierce) in Moscow.

The show’s eponymous hero is found working on Capitol Hill – while Greer maintains his post in Russia. The dynamic duo team up again in Venezuela, as their two different missions collide in the hostile environment of a presidential election.

After tracking a potentially suspicious shipment of illegal arms in the Venezuelan jungle, Ryan heads to South America to investigate.

As Ryan’s investigation threatens to uncover a far-reaching conspiracy, the president of Venezuela – portrayed by Spanish actor Jordi Molla – launches a counter-attack that hits home for the officer – leading him and his fellow operatives on a global mission that spans the US, UK, Russia and South America in order to unravel the president’s nefarious plot and bring stability to a country on the brink of chaos.

The international mystery of season 2 introduces a slew of new characters to the Jack Ryan universe – former House of Cards star Michael Kelly joins the cast as steely CIA veteran Mike November, and Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) plays enigmatic intelligence agent Harry Baumann.

Jovan Adepo (The Leftovers, Fences), Tom Wlaschiha (Game of Thrones), and Cristina Umana (Narcos) also appear.

One character who is notably missing from this season’s action is Abbie Cornish’s Cathy Mueller, who had a starring role in season 1.

Krasinski, speaking to Digital Spy about the second season, said his favourite part was the change audiences would see in his character – from analyst to fully-fledged agent.

By the end of season 1, “Wendell’s character convinces him that you have to be able to get into the fight, and be willing to get into the fight, and to also know that the fight is not black and white – there’s a lot of grey area, and the choices you make will be very difficult,” he said.

Krasinski added that we would see Ryan faced with the harsh reality of a world where he’d be “a lot more” uncertain whether something was right or wrong.

“So I think, for me, season 2 is a really nice stepping stone from where he went in season 1.

“You start to see Jack basically being a lot more morally ambiguous, which I think is really exciting to play.”

Much like season 1, the slow-simmering mystery steadily unravels – compelling viewers to watch just one more episode. Not only is the action heightened but so are the emotional stakes when it’s revealed Greer has a potentially fatal heart condition.

Clancy’s spy has appeared on screen in many forms before – played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and before Krasinski, Chris Pine.

Amazon confirmed earlier this year the series would return for a third season – expected to be released in 2020.

Jack Ryan season 2 is available for streaming on Amazon Prime now

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