John Wick director Chad Stahelski enlists in Rainbow Six starring Michael B. Jordan
Stahleski will presumably bring the obligatory gunplay to the series that launched an onslaught of first-person shooters
Michael B. Jordan is ready for another tour of duty. After surviving the 2021 revenge rampage Without Remorse, Jordan’s character John Clark will have to learn to be part of a team. The next movie in Jordan’s ClanceyVerse is Tom Clancey’s Rainbow Six, and it’s got a director equipped to helm a film about a one-man wrecking crew forced to work with others: John Wick’s Chad Stahelski.
Last seen playing himself in The Matrix Resurrections, Stahelski will direct Rainbow Six. Stahelski, a stunt coordinator turned director who helmed the first three Wick chapters and the upcoming John Wick 4, is in high demand these days. He’s still apparently making the Highlander reboot, starring Henry Cavill, who suddenly has a free schedule, an adaptation of the video game Ghost Of Tsushima, and an adaptation of the Black Samurai novels for Netflix. Meanwhile, he will have to teach Michael B. Jordan to say, “fookin’ laser sights,” just right.
Though before Rainbox Six was a video game series that you might remember from sixth-grade sleepovers, LAN parties, or Steam (the first one came out in 1998 and hasn’t slowed down since), it was a book. Jordan’s character John Clark appears as the protagonist of Without Remorse and Clancey’s Rainbow Six novel. Clark, a special ops fixer, also appeared in several Clancy adaptations, including two Jack Ryan movies, portrayed by Willem Dafoe in Clear And Present Danger and Liev Schrieber in The Sum Of All Fears.
Released in April 2021, Without Remorse served as an origin story for the character in case anyone wondered how one becomes a killer “without remorse.” How else? Assassins killed his wife and unborn child. The movie debuted on Amazon Prime due to the uncertainty regarding movie theaters. However, per Hollywood Reporter, Paramount plans on releasing Rainbox Six theatrically.
All this makes sense. Without Remorse was nothing if not a chance to turn a Tom Clancey movie into a John Wick. As we noted in our review, “The movie’s attempts at ruthless pulp manipulation don’t land; cruelly offing a character whose entire personality is “pregnant” is a cheap bid for John Wick stakes.” We’ll see if this sequel lives up to the talents of its star.