Marvel’s Greatest Storyteller Gets His Own Tom Clancy Series
The greatest (and most breathless) storyteller in the Marvel Cinematic Universe may be getting his very own spy thriller series.
Michael Peña is likely known best to audiences as Luis, Paul Rudd’s cheerful, frugal, and extremely verbose buddy in the MCU Ant-Man movies. Though he has been a very busy working actor since the mid-1990s, he originally broke out in dark, dramatic roles like Paul Haggis’ Oscar-winning 2004 film Crash and David Ayer’s very depressing End of Watch. When Marvel Studios came calling and Ant-Man needed a quick-talking storytelling sidekick, Peña fit the bill perfectly, as you can see here, here, and here. However, it looks like Michael Peña is about to level up and get his very own Amazon Prime Video series. Specifically, it seems he will be appearing in John Krasinski’s Jack Ryan as a way to introduce a new character and spin-off off a whole show.
According to Deadline, Michael Peña will be joining the cast of Jack Ryan in the third season. Reportedly, the Amazon Prime Video series will be ending after four seasons. The general idea appears to be that Peña will enter the picture and hopefully audiences will like him enough to stick around for a new series, in the traditional backdoor pilot method of spin-offs. Specifically, Michael Peña has been cast as a popular Tom Clancy character named Domingo “Ding” Chavez. Chavez is depicted as being a US Army veteran and a CIA officer, as well as an elite military tactician. So far, the character has been in 22 novels and counting, because Tom Clancy novels will never stop coming out, ever. Chavez has been on screen once before, in the 1994 adaptation of Clear and Present Danger, played by Raymond Cruz.
Before his death in 2013, Clancy wrote or co-wrote 19 novels beginning with 1984’s The Hunt for Red October. The success of that novel (which was published by the small Naval Institute Press) turned into the mammoth success of the film adaptation starring Alec Baldwin. His lead character Jack Ryan has subsequently been portrayed by Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck, Chris Pine, and now John Krasinski. Since Clancy’s passing, his estate has authorized continuations of his shared universe that now number in the dozens. At the very least, there will not be any shortage of continuing storylines for Peña or dramatic political disasters to be taken care of.
This would be a relatively rare starring vehicle for Michael Peña. He is currently filming the latest insect-themed MCU film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; reportedly, he is the only remaining member of X-Con Security Consultants to be returning for the movie. Fellow former convict turned security expert David Dastmalchian has been confirmed to not be returning to the film, as has rapper/actor T.I. The production did gain Bill Murray in a so-far unknown villain role, although his recent issues now throw that into question. At the very least, it seems like audiences are going to get one more spin around the block with Michael Peña’s Luis, which promises more rapidly-paced, breathlessly monotone monologues to come. But at this point Peña absolutely deserves his own star vehicle, and maybe the Clancyverse needs a good storyteller.
