During the interview with Collider, John Krasinski disclosed that, while it was certainly incredibly unfortunate that their Season 3 storyline for "Jack Ryan" ended up being eerily similar to the Ukraine and Russia war, they actually looked at Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red October" novel for inspiration. Of course, they changed key details to modernize it a bit, but the intent was the same.
"I like to put a small homage to all of Tom Clancy's books or movies in the series," Krasinski said. "And this season, we had decided to make it Hunt for Red October. So that's how we settled on Russia. Instead of a nuclear submarine, we thought, 'What would it be like to have the main threat be intel from a man? So you're looking for one man, not a submarine?'"
Of course, there's nothing inherently wrong with fiction pulling from reality in order to tell made-up stories. Still, the timing of Season 3 was so in sync with the war that it wouldn't have been surprising if some fans found the parallels a little insensitive on the show's part. Having Krasinski add some much-needed context like this certainly serves to alleviate those kinds of worries, even if the timing still seems eerily prescient.
