The "Tier One" novels written by Navy veterans Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson will be the latest military thriller series to make the move to television, joining a crowded field that already features "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan," "The Terminal List," "The Gray Man," "Tom Clancy's "Without Remorse," "Reacher" and "SEAL Team."
The book series follows John Dempsey, a Navy SEAL whose military career ends after a terrorist attack. Forced into a shadowy new life as a spy, Dempsey leads an elite team of operators carrying out off-the-books missions to protect our freedom.
Does this premise sound familiar? Sure, but the market has proved that there's a seemingly infinite appetite for stories about operators forced to go rogue in service to the greater good. Streaming services make it possible to tell these stories with a level of tactical action that would be impossible on network television, and the viewers seem to show up every single time one of these shows or movies launches.
The series will be developed by the Cross brothers. Scott and Sean Cross are relative newcomers in the industry. There's no home yet for the series, but odds seem good that they'll find a home as services are gravitating more toward proven genres as the streaming market matures.
Andrews and Wilson have published six John Dempsey novels since "Tier One" debuted in 2016. The seventh, simply titled "Dempsey," is set for release on Feb. 21, 2023. They've already started working on book No. 8, due next year, and they've also published two novels in the "Sons of Valor" series that takes place in the extended "Tier One" universe, with a third coming in November.
The authors also penned "Rogue Asset," the ninth novel in the late Army veteran W.E.B. Griffin's Presidential Agent series and have been engaged by Tom Clancy's family to write the next Jack Ryan novel.
Brian Andrews is a nuclear engineer who served on a submarine during his Navy service. Jeffrey Wilson was a combat surgeon who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan while attached to a SEAL Team working with a Joint Special Operations Task Force.
"Tier One" seems like a sure bet. You've got a series of best-selling books about a lone wolf operator tasked with righting the world's wrongs under a cover of darkness. That's a story that never seems to grow old.
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