Actor Michael Peña might be solo headlining the first TV series of his career.
According to Deadline, there is talk that Amazon Studios is interested in creating a spinoff of its Jack Ryan series for Peña to star in when the original series ends after its fourth season. In October 2021, Deadline reported that Peña would join the cast of Jack Ryan Season 4, which stars John Krasinski in the title role and is currently in production.
Now, Deadline is reporting that Peña will be introduced in the final episode of the third season, which is already in the can but currently does not have a premiere date. He is said to be playing a character named Domingo “Ding” Chavez, a CIA agent and former member of the U.S. Army who has gone on missions around the globe and is an officer with the multinational counter-terrorism unit known as Rainbow Six.
Chavez has appeared in 22 of author Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels, including Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears, both of which were adapted into feature films in 1994 and 2002. In Clear and Present Danger, which featured Harrison Ford in the role of Jack Ryan, actor Raymond Cruz (Training Day) portrayed Chavez.
Besides Krasinski and Ford, other actors that have played the iconic role of Jack Ryan are Alec Baldwin, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine, so it seems like a fresh take by Amazon Studios to develop a spinoff with a Latine lead instead of following the same casting criteria the Jack Ryan franchise has stuck to for the last three decades.
Micheal Peña will next be seen this summer in Secret Headquarters, an original superhero movie directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Project Power).
