Jack Ryan Spin-Off Canceled: Actor Reveals the Real Reason

Well, that Jack Ryan universe expansion we were told to get excited about? Looks like it hit a wall. The Ding Chavez spin-off that was supposed to launch out of the show’s final season has quietly stalled out, and Michael Pena just walked through the why of it — and yeah, it’s a mix of rights drama, money, and timing. Classic.

What the series was supposed to be

Pena’s Domingo 'Ding' Chavez popped up in the fourth and final season of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and was set to headline his own show centered on the elite Rainbow unit. It sounded like a layup: fan-favorite character, clean handoff from a big Prime Video hit, built-in Clancy brand.

What actually happened

In a chat with ScreenRant, Pena said he thought cameras would roll about a year earlier than they did — and then everything bogged down. According to him, the character rights turned into a fight, which pushed things off the rails. He also floated a slightly ironic wrinkle: the spin-off being in demand may have complicated the negotiations instead of helping them.

"Who knows? None of this is confirmed, but I was really surprised, especially with how well received that character was that there wasn’t a spinoff."

Pena tied some of the mess to the other Tom Clancy track over at Amazon: 2021’s Without Remorse with Michael B. Jordan as John Clark. That movie was originally meant for theaters before it went straight to Prime Video, and Pena suspects that shift created financial obligations that bled into the spin-off’s situation. His words, not mine: he thinks money was owed.

The bigger picture (and why it gets messy)

There’s also a separate Rainbow project moving on the film side. Without Remorse is still expected to get a sequel, Rainbow Six, with John Wick director Chad Stahelski attached. That means two different projects about the same elite unit — one as a series, one as a movie — potentially landing around the same time. If you’re Amazon, choosing the feature and shelving the show is a neat way to avoid brand confusion. For what it’s worth, updates on Stahelski’s Rainbow Six have been pretty quiet too.

• Pena says the Ding Chavez series was delayed by a character-rights battle.
• He thought they’d start shooting a year earlier before the legal logjam hit.
• He believes the show’s demand may have complicated those rights talks.
• He links some of the fallout to Without Remorse’s theatrical-to-streaming pivot, which he thinks left money on the table.
• Rainbow Six, a film sequel to Without Remorse with Chad Stahelski attached, could have overlapped with the planned series, giving Amazon a reason to prioritize the movie.
• All of Pena’s explanations are his read on the situation — he stresses none of it is officially confirmed.

Bottom line: the Ding Chavez series appears to be canceled, or at least mothballed to the point of irrelevance. If Rainbow Six finally surges forward, that’s probably your next Clancy stop. If not, we’re all waiting in the same holding pattern, Pena included.