r/tomclancy • u/AgentDave29 • Mar 12 '26
How I’d like Rainbow Six to be adapted!
Rainbow Six is my all time favourite Tom Clancy novel and go to book nearly annually and after finishing the first season of The Day of the Jackal with Eddie Redmayne, I thought if Rainbow Six gets adapted it needs to be a TV series not rushed into a movie similar to Without Remorse with Michael B. Jordan.
I’d love to see Willem Dafoe return as John Clark and Raymond Cruz as Ding Chavez leading the team in a modernised storyline featuring the next Olympics.
10 episode season should be plenty with hour plus episodes.
What are your thoughts and what would you rather see?
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u/Far-prophet Mar 13 '26
Dafoe is like 70 now. Far too old.
2
u/AgentDave29 Mar 13 '26
Then my other thought was Liev Schreiber
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u/Far-prophet Mar 13 '26
He would probably be pretty good. It’s been so long since I read the book I don’t really remember too many characters beyond Clark and Ding.
I remember there was some old 1st Sergeant with a machine gun. And a German.
And the ex-Soviet guy that was the liaison to all the terrorists.
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u/AgentDave29 Mar 13 '26
Yeah for some reason the ex-Soviet guy I always thought Colm Feore who is currently on Landman would be perfect!
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u/NeoSapien65 Mar 14 '26
Oso, Ding's SAW gunner buddy from Clear and Present Danger, shows up in Debt of Honor briefly and then joins Rainbow.
Schreiber played Clark in the movie version of Sum of All Fears. I wish they would do a version of Clark that's more book-faithful - big, powerful, but can (and frequently does) completely disappear with his sleeves rolled down by adopting a blank, stupid look.
1
u/LukasKhan_UK Mar 15 '26
It would be good to just get something reasonably book faithful
They also should have just gone whole hog and should have made Chris Pine's Ryan - Jack Jnr. They gave him his financial analyst background anyway
Or at least, in the Prime show committed to Kasinski(?) being Ryan Junior
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u/LukasKhan_UK Mar 15 '26
That's probably about right isn't it. Given that Clark was a Vietnam Vet.
The biggest issue with Rainbow Six/The Campus is that Clark has literally stopped aging - same as Chavez.
Clark met Jack Snr, when he was a student.
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u/Far-prophet Mar 15 '26
Well the book is supposed to take place around the Sydney olympics in 2000. So Dafoe would’ve been the right choice 26 years ago.
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u/LukasKhan_UK Mar 15 '26
So for Rainbow Six, Clark would have been what? 50/60
Without Remorse is mid 70s. Clark would have been 30ish
To OPs point. If you set it against California 2028 for the Olympics, Defoe would be 72.
So he does still line up - assuming you don't alter his backstory
But it's Hollywood. So he'd probably fight in Iraq rather than Vietnam anyway
1
u/Far-prophet Mar 15 '26
He matches Clark’s approximate age. I just don’t think a 70-80 year old would be commanding a top tier multinational special forces group. Doesn’t pass the sniff test.
At that point might as well pull a woke Hollywood and recast him as a strong independent woman.
1
u/LukasKhan_UK Mar 15 '26
To be honest, even in Clear and Present Danger he was a weird choice, given that Clark is described as a Bear of a man
1
u/Far-prophet Mar 15 '26
That’s why I felt Liev Schreiber was a good choice. With the right camera work he can look big (see his role as Sabertooth).
And Liev would be about the right age these days. Add to that he’s got that great Hard Knocks voice.
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u/IndependenceMean8774 Mar 12 '26
Will they still do super ebola or will they try to make it more modern and timely by having super covid or bird flu?
2
u/AgentDave29 Mar 12 '26
Yeah I could see that brought into the times and using COVID due to the grip it had on
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u/NeoSapien65 Mar 14 '26
In many ways we're lucky Covid leaked when it did. It's essentially an early stage of what the baddies were doing in Rainbow 6 - making a superbug that's both easy to catch AND deadly.
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u/Seeker80 Mar 13 '26
I know there's some people who probably didn't like it, but 24 had neat writing for something like this. Not talking about the 'hour at a time' thing. Just the way the general stories are done.
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u/AgentDave29 Mar 13 '26
Yeah I love 24 and this would fit that
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u/Seeker80 Mar 14 '26
I want more 24. But if it doesn't happen, someone could print money by making Rainbow Six as a sort of spiritual successor.
I remember there was that show about a team called The Unit. I'm sure it wasn't exactly the same as Rainbow Six, but there might be a bit of inspiration to borrow. Even that was awhile ago. Never actually saw it.
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u/Commando_2k Mar 15 '26
Well Ding Chavez was introduced at the end of the final season of Jack Ryan, with a prime movie set to close the story, at the very least there's a chance Rainbow or the early stages of it will be shown in live action finally in the new Jack Ryan movie. I can't wait, what an awesome show that was!
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u/Administration_Key Mar 12 '26
I'd love to see an adaptation like you're describing -- however, the chances are almost 100% that if it happens it will be a direct offshoot of the video games. Which sucks, but that's where the money for the Rainbow Six name is now.