Actor Michael Kelly, who plays retired CIA officer Mike November in the Jack Ryan franchise, has spoken about filming scenes for the new season, Jack Ryan: Ghost War, in Dubai. He said the cast and crew were welcomed with open arms in the city and felt a sense of warmth from the moment they arrived.
Part of the season's plot brings the characters to Dubai, where an intelligence mission draws them into a covert operation. For one of the season's most demanding sequences, Kelly had to walk across a metal grate more than 40 storeys above the ground toward a crane. He admitted he instinctively gripped the railings at first, and despite a fear of heights, managed to complete the scene. "Consciously, you know you're safe," he said. "But there's that moment when you look down and say, 'that's death right there.'"
Other scenes for the season were shot in the Dubai desert, including sequences involving dune buggies. Kelly stars alongside John Krasinski as Jack Ryan, Wendell Pierce as James Greer, and Sienna Miller as Emma Marlow.
Jack Ryan: Ghost War continues the story of the popular Prime Video series, whose current season premiered in May 2026. Kelly also revealed he has pitched producers on a spin-off built around his character, a sign that Dubai continues to attract major Hollywood productions looking for dramatic action backdrops.