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Ryanverse
Media franchise created by Tom Clancy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Ryanverse franchise focuses on the character Jack Ryan, a fictional CIA analyst created in 1984 by American author Tom Clancy, who featured him in fourteen novels. It also features CIA operative John Clark and The Campus, a covert counter-terrorism and intelligence organization. Since Clancy's death in 2013, four other authors have written authorized novels featuring Ryan and the Campus: Mark Greaney, Marc Cameron, and Andrews and Wilson. In addition, a spin-off series featuring Ryan's son Jack Junior was written by Grant Blackwood, Mike Maden, Don Bentley, and M. P. Woodward. The latest novel is Terminal Velocity by M. P. Woodward, a Jack Junior novel published in September 2025.
Clancy's novels featuring the Ryanverse have charted at the top of the New York Times bestseller list, selling more than 100 million copies.[1][2] They have been adapted for film, video games, and television. The films, starring Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, and Chris Pine as Ryan, have an unadjusted worldwide gross revenue of $788.4 million to date,[3] making it the 57th-highest-grossing film series.[4] Amazon Prime Video has released a television series featuring John Krasinski as Ryan and a planned film series featuring Michael B. Jordan as Clark. In addition, Clark has appeared in the Rainbow Six series of video games.
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Publication history
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Concept and creation
Clancy developed the Jack Ryan character while working as an insurance agent in Maryland, drawing extensively from his early interests and personal background.[5] Clancy, who grew up in an Irish-American family in Baltimore and was unable to serve in the military due to nearsightedness, developed a passion for military history and strategy from an early age. He was described as a "nerd" who enjoyed playing military board games and was an avid reader of military history books and science fiction.
The author's research methodology became central to his character and world-building process. Many of Clancy's insurance clients were former nuclear submariners, both officers and enlisted personnel, whose expertise he systematically gathered.[6] He conducted extensive research using military publications such as Armed Forces Weekly and Jane's Defence Weekly, and collaborated with subject experts ranging from Soviet defectors to retired Air Force generals. Clancy based his first novel on the real-life attempted defection of the crew of the Soviet frigate Storozhevoy to Sweden.[7][8]
According to character sketches discovered by the U.S. Naval Institute, Clancy originally envisioned Ryan as born in the 1950s, the son of a Baltimore police officer and hospital nurse. The character was designed to attend Clancy's own alma mater, Loyola High School, and earn an economics degree from Boston College before joining the United States Marine Corps. The detailed background included Ryan's career path from a helicopter crash injury during military service, through work at Merrill Lynch, to eventual recruitment by the CIA while working as an associate editor with the U.S. Naval Institute.[9]
The character of Jack Ryan was modeled partly on former Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates, with Clancy telling Gates that "You know, for the first several novels, I pretty much modeled Ryan's career on yours".[10] This grounding in real-world intelligence careers helped establish the series' commitment to authenticity in depicting government operations and military technology. As for Clark, Clancy described him as "Ryan's dark side" and "more inclined to take physical action than Jack is."[11]
Novels
Tom Clancy novels
Clancy's debut novel, The Hunt for Red October, was first published by Naval Institute Press in 1984.[12] It marks the first appearance of Jack Ryan, an analyst working for the Central Intelligence Agency. He rises up the ranks in the CIA, eventually becoming Deputy Director in The Sum of All Fears. After a brief retirement from government service, Ryan is appointed National Security Advisor in Debt of Honor to deal with a crisis involving Japan. After being nominated as Vice President, he becomes President of the United States following a terrorist attack at the United States Capitol.
John Clark first appeared in The Cardinal of the Kremlin, with his origin story established in Without Remorse. A former Navy SEAL as John Terrence Kelly, he fakes his death after waging a one-man war on drug dealers in Baltimore in order to avoid capture by Ryan's father Emmet, a police lieutenant. Clark becomes a CIA officer and first meets Ryan in Clear and Present Danger as they work to rescue a U.S. Army black ops unit abandoned by the government after carrying out a secret war against the Medellin Cartel in Colombia. Clark meets Domingo "Ding" Chavez during the rescue, and they later work together in the CIA. Clark later forms the elite international counter-terrorism organization known as Rainbow, as depicted in Rainbow Six.
Ryan later finishes his term as President and creates The Campus, a covert counter-terrorism and intelligence organization fronting as Hendley Associates, a financial trading firm, in The Teeth of the Tiger. His son, Jack Junior, and his nephews, Dominic and Brian Caruso, are its first recruits. A prequel novel, Red Rabbit, focuses on Ryan as a CIA liaison with British foreign intelligence as he uncovers a plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II. All the books were published in the United States through G. P. Putnam's Sons.
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Collaborations
After a seven-year break from writing fiction, Clancy returned in 2010 with Dead or Alive, co-written with Grant Blackwood.[13] It brought Ryan, Clark, Chavez, and the Campus together in what was called the All-Star Team.[14]
The spin-off novel Against All Enemies, co-written with Peter Telep, features ex-Navy SEAL and CIA paramilitary officer Max Moore.[15] A sequel, Search and Destroy, remains unpublished.[16]
Clancy co-wrote his final three novels with Mark Greaney, with Command Authority posthumously released after his death in 2013.[17] In the books, Ryan becomes President for a second time, and Clark and Chavez start working for The Campus alongside Jack Junior.
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Post-Clancy novels
After Clancy's death, a Campus spin-off novel featuring Dominic Caruso, Support and Defend, was written by Greaney and published in 2014.[18] Greaney went on to write three more novels featuring Ryan and the Campus. In 2017, Marc Cameron picked up the series[19] and wrote seven novels, including the Cold War prequel Red Winter. In 2024, Andrews and Wilson continued the Jack Ryan series starting with Act of Defiance, a direct sequel to The Hunt for Red October released on the 40th anniversary of its publication.[20] They announced their exit in 2025 and will be replaced by Ward Larsen in 2026.[21]
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Jack Ryan Jr.
The Jack Ryan Jr. spin-off series was started by Blackwood, who wrote two novels. It was continued by Mike Maden in 2017,[22] who wrote four novels, and in 2021 by Don Bentley, who wrote four more.[23] In 2023, M. P. Woodward was announced to continue the series.[24]
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Characters
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Cast
Some of the key characters in the Ryanverse have been portrayed in the following films and television series:
Presidents
A total of six presidents are depicted in the Ryanverse, although only five are named:
- The unnamed man referred to as "the President" or later by his Secret Service codename "Wrangler", is first introduced in The Hunt for Red October; he remains in office through The Cardinal of the Kremlin and Clear and Present Danger. At the end of the last novel, he runs for reelection and is defeated.
- J. Robert Fowler, former governor of Ohio, defeats the incumbent president at the end of Clear and Present Danger and is in office during The Sum of All Fears. After his failure to handle the Denver crisis nearly results in nuclear war, he resigns from office at the end of the novel.
- Roger Durling, Fowler's vice president, former governor of California and a Vietnam veteran with service in the 82nd Airborne Division. Durling replaces Fowler when he resigns and is the President in Debt of Honor. He nearly completes Fowler's term as president and is planning a reelection campaign when he is killed along with most of the government when a Japanese jetliner crashes into the Capitol.
- John Patrick Ryan is confirmed as Durling's new vice president at the end of Debt of Honor, and is sworn in as president when Durling is murdered on the same day. His claim to the presidency is contested by Durling's former vice president Ed Kealty in Executive Orders, but the courts eventually rule in Ryan's favor. He is mentioned during Rainbow Six although he never appears, and is depicted as president in The Bear and the Dragon. Ryan chooses not to run for re-election between the events of The Bear and The Dragon and The Teeth of The Tiger.
- Robert Jefferson "Robby" Jackson succeeds Ryan as President of the United States after Ryan retires (as described in The Teeth of the Tiger), with Ryan believing he could leave the country in Robby's capable hands. After serving out the remainder of Ryan's term, Robby campaigned for his own re-election. While travelling in Mississippi, however, Jackson was assassinated by Duane Farmer, a 67-year-old member of the Ku Klux Klan.
- Edward Jonathan Kealty: Durling's former vice president, replaced by Jack Ryan after a sex scandal. When incumbent president Robby Jackson is assassinated while campaigning, Kealty is elected president in his own right, a position he holds from The Teeth of the Tiger to Locked On.
- John Patrick Ryan: begins his campaign for reelection during the events of Dead or Alive, defeats Kealty by a narrow margin in Locked On and assumes office prior to the events of Threat Vector. He is depicted as president in all subsequent Ryanverse novels.
Various books contain references to the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush as if they had happened.
The Campus
Beginning with The Teeth of the Tiger, Ryanverse novels feature The Campus, a covert counter-terrorism and intelligence organization. Hendley Associates, a private trading and arbitrage company, serves as a legitimate cover for the organization, or its "white-side". They fund The Campus's intelligence operations by stock market trades influenced by captured intelligence data, thus removing federal oversight and allowing free rein in the Campus's operations. The Campus was later integrated by President Ryan and Director of National Intelligence Mary Pat Foley into the U.S. intelligence community in Flash Point to deal with a crisis at the South China Sea.
- Gerald Paul "Gerry" Hendley Jr.: founder & CEO. A former Democratic senator from South Carolina, Hendley was tasked by then-President Ryan to lead The Campus and its cover Hendley Associates.
- John Clark: director of operations. He was employed by The Campus after retiring from the CIA and Rainbow in Dead or Alive, and after a brief retirement replaces Sam Granger as operations head in Command Authority.
- Domingo "Ding" Chavez: senior operations officer. Along with Clark, he was recruited by The Campus after retiring from the CIA and Rainbow. Ding helps train new agents for the Campus as well and participates in field operations.
- Gavin Biery: director of information technology
- Jack Ryan Jr.: intelligence analyst and operations officer. Originally an analyst, he becomes more involved in field operations from Dead or Alive onwards, initially to the concern of his father. He becomes a team leader in Flash Point.
- Dominic "Dom" Caruso: operations officer and former FBI special agent
- Adara Sherman: operations officer from True Faith and Allegiance onwards and former director of transportation. In a relationship with Dom Caruso.
- Bartosz "Barry" Jankowski (call sign "Midas"): operations officer and former Delta Force operator. Recruited by Clark in True Faith and Allegiance.
- Lisanne Robertson: operations officer and former director of transportation. Introduced in Power and Empire. Loses her left arm in Shadow of the Dragon. Engaged to Jack Junior at the end of Flash Point.
- Master Sergeant Cary Marks: a member of Operational Detachment Alpha 555 who worked with the Campus on several missions. Introduced in Target Acquired and appears in subsequent Jack Junior novels.
- Sergeant First Class Jad Mustafa: a member of Operational Detachment Alpha 555 who worked with the Campus on several missions. Introduced in Target Acquired and appears in subsequent Jack Junior novels.
- Master Chief Kendrick Moore: provisional operations officer. A former Navy SEAL team leader, Moore was forced out after an Islamic State defector told The New York Times that his team had killed a suspected terrorist while under interrogation. Recruited by Clark in Shadow State.
- Steven "Chilly" Edwards: operations officer. Introduced in Chain of Command as a police officer in Abilene, Texas who rescues First Lady Cathy Ryan from Camarilla operatives and is recruited by Clark and Chavez at the end of the novel.
- Amanda "Mandy" Cobb: operations officer and graduate of the FBI Academy. Appears in Command and Control.
- Helen Reid: pilot of Hendley Associates's Gulfstream G550
- Chester "Country" Hicks: co-pilot of Hendley Associates's Gulfstream G550
- Sam Driscoll: operations officer and former Army Ranger. He was recruited by Clark after the Kealty administration dropped murder charges against him for killing sleeping Middle Eastern terrorists in a cave in Pakistan during the hunt for the Emir in Dead or Alive. Dies in an operation in Mexico City in Full Force and Effect.
- Brian Caruso: operations officer and former Marine Major, and Dom's brother. Dies in an operation in Libya in Dead or Alive.
- Jerry Rounds: chief of strategic planning / director of intelligence
- Rick Bell: chief of analysis
- Sam Granger: director of operations. Killed by the Chinese in Threat Vector.
- Tony Wills: intelligence analyst who originally trained Jack Ryan Jr. on the intelligence side of The Campus
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Adaptations
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Films
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| Second film series |
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| Third film series |
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| Spin-off series |
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Television
A television series adaptation, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, premiered on August 31, 2018, on Amazon Prime Video. The show was created by Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland, with Michael Bay as an executive producer and production company Platinum Dunes and Paramount Television serving as a co-production studio partners. John Krasinski stars in the title role.[34][35][36] The series ran for four seasons and ended in July 2023.
Actors who played Jack Ryan
Alec Baldwin
(1990)
Harrison Ford
(1992, 1994)
Ben Affleck
(2002)
Chris Pine
(2014)
John Krasinski
(2018-2023)
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Actors who played John Clark
Willem Dafoe
(1994)
Liev Schreiber
(2002)
Michael B. Jordan
(2021)
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Video games
Many video games based on the Ryanverse have been made, some based on the novels, some on the films, some on the spin-offs.
- The Hunt for Red October (1987): based on the book The Hunt for Red October. It was released for the Atari ST, Amiga, Apple II, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Commodore 64 and IBM PC. The player must navigate the Red October towards U.S. waters while avoiding the Soviet Navy. The game is a combination of submarine simulator and strategy game.
- The Hunt for Red October (1990): based on the movie The Hunt for Red October. It was released for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, and ZX Spectrum. The game features five action sequences including jumping from a helicopter and navigating submarines through deep channels and avoiding from many obstacles.
- The Sum of All Fears (2002): based on the movie The Sum of All Fears. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, and the GameCube. It is a tactical first-person shooter where various mission must be completed including saving hostages in a Charleston, West Virginia television station, and shutting down the operations of a West Virginian militia.
Rainbow Six games
The novel Rainbow Six became the basis for a series of tactical first-person shooter video games.
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Bibliography
- Clancy, Tom (1984). Hunt for Red October, The. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-8702-1285-0.
- Clancy, Tom (1987). Patriot Games. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-3241-4.
- Clancy, Tom (1988). Cardinal of the Kremlin, The. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-3345-3.
- Clancy, Tom (1989). Clear and Present Danger. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-3440-9.
- Clancy, Tom (1991). Sum of All Fears, The. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-3615-0.
- Clancy, Tom (1993). Without Remorse. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-3825-0.
- Clancy, Tom (1994). Debt of Honor. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-3954-0.
- Clancy, Tom (1996). Executive Orders. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-4218-5.
- Clancy, Tom (1998). Rainbow Six. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-4390-4.
- Clancy, Tom (2000). Bear and the Dragon, The. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-4563-X.
- Clancy, Tom (2002). Red Rabbit. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-4870-1.
- Clancy, Tom (2003). Teeth of the Tiger, The. G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-3991-5079-X.
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References
External links
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