The show-runners of Tom Clancy`s Jack Ryan have created a modern hero for audiences of the 21st Century while maintaining his characteristics from the original franchise that made him a hero of the 90`s. Along with the new Jack Ryan, the show also has extremely strong women that play a significant role and make the series worth a watch.
Hanin Ali who is married to Suleiman, the antagonist in the show proves herself an instrumental ally to Jack Ryan and his team. Married off at a young age, she is a devoted mother of three children. She flees to Syria to protect them from Suleiman`s progressively inhuman activities. Cuse and Roland wrote a deeply textured role for Dina Shihabi, who plays Hanin. A Saudi Arabian actress of Palestinian origin, Shihabi starred in the 2014 romantic comedy Amira & Sam before landing what she considers the role of a lifetime.
`As an Arab woman I rarely find female film or TV characters in America - or anywhere, really - who are proactive and fearless like Hanin,` Shihabi says. `She`s not a pushover. Playing Hanin, I get to show her innate strength, which develops even more as she goes on this journey to save her kids. Each choice Hanin makes is about the safety of her children, and I think that`s an incredible thing to connect with as a woman.`
Cathy Mueller is Jack Ryan`s love interest in the show. She is a workaholic doctor specializing in infectious diseases which influences what Jack does later, Cathy Mueller loves her profession and is most at home in her epidemiology lab. She investigates an outbreak of a virulent form of Ebola that may point to something more ominous and might indirectly lead her to the center of the plot without even knowing it.
While speaking about the well-defined and nuanced women characters in the series, John Kranski says, `the women characters had so much more to do than play wives, which I think is important and representative of where we are as a culture.`
Both behind and before the camera, women had significant role to play. The director Patricia Riggen and armourer and weapons specialist Natalia Lee have lent vision and direction to the show. Patricia has managed to beautifully capture the vulnerability and human element to Suleiman`s character through her own style.
Watch the video to get a low down on all the badass women of Jack Ryan:
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All episodes of Tom Clancy`s Jack Ryan are now streaming on Amazon Prime Video now