As US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a dramatic overnight military operation in the early hours of Saturday morning, online sleuths rushed to declare that Jack Ryan had seen it coming.
Clips from the Amazon Prime political thriller went viral within hours of the strike, with social media users claiming the series had ‘predicted’ Maduro’s downfall years in advance.
But the show’s creator is now forcefully rejecting such claims saying the resemblance between fiction and reality was never about foresight.
The renewed attention comes after US special forces seized Maduro in an operation that President Donald Trump later said he watched unfold ‘like I was watching a television show.’
Carlton Cuse, the veteran television producer who co-created Jack Ryan, said the viral moment was never meant to predict the future, insisting the series released in 2019 was grounded in plausibility.
‘The goal of that season wasn’t prophecy – it was plausibility,’ Cuse said in an interview with Deadline, responding to renewed attention on a 2019 episode that dissected Venezuela’s strategic and humanitarian collapse.
‘When you ground a story in real geopolitical dynamics, reality has a way of making it rhyme.’
US forces launched a sweeping military operation that culminated in the capture of Maduro, ending more than a decade of increasingly authoritarian rule.
Clips from Jack Ryan went viral after US forces captured Nicolás Maduro, sparking claims the show predicted reality
The show’s creator Carlton Cuse, pictured, said the series was built on plausibility not prophecy
Helicopters fly past plumes of smoke rising from explosions, in Caracas, Venezuela on Saturday
In clips from Jack Ryan season 2, CIA analyst Ryan, played by John Krasinski, warns that Venezuela represents a global threat due to its immense oil and mineral wealth, its spiraling humanitarian crisis, and its proximity to the United States.
Social media users seized on the parallels, hailing the show as eerily prescient.
But Cuse said such comparisons miss the point.
‘Graham Roland and I weren’t making a statement – we were telling a fictional character-driven thriller rooted in Venezuela’s long-standing strategic relevance,’ Cuse said. ‘Our job was to make the situation feel credible.’
In Jack Ryan, the Venezuelan storyline ends with a corrupt fictional president exposed and removed through political maneuvering and elections.
Reality, by contrast, arrived with airstrikes, helicopters and special forces.
On Sunday, US aircraft struck targets around Caracas as part of what officials later confirmed was a tightly planned mission known as Operation Absolute Resolve.
Explosions were heard shortly before 2am with missiles lighting up the sky and helicopters slicing through the darkness.
The 2019 season of Jack Ryan centered on Venezuela’s political collapse and a struggle for power inside the country
The viral moment thrust Jack Ryan into the rare club of shows accused of predicting world events
Smoke rises from explosions in Caracas, Venezuela, overnight on Saturday
President Donald Trump said he watched the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro unfold in real time at Mar-a-Lago, comparing the military raid to ‘watching a television show’. Trump is seen sitting next to CIA Director John Ratcliffe
Cuse made clear that such outcomes were never the intent of Jack Ryan’s writers’ room.
‘Any time the United States uses force abroad, it’s a moment that deserves reflection,’ he said.
‘The consequences are borne most significantly by people who have very little control over events.’
He emphasized that the series never sought to imagine a specific outcome for Venezuela, only to dramatize the competing pressures shaping the country.
‘The season came from our desire to tell a fictional story about the forces at play, not from imagining an outcome,’ Cuse said.
The resurfaced episode places Jack Ryan in rare company – joining The Simpsons in the pop-culture hall of fame for shows accused of ‘predicting’ global events.
Cuse said that reputation often follows stories that lean heavily on real geopolitics.
‘What always surprises you as a storyteller is how often real-world events catch up to fiction,’ he said.
Top US General Dan Caine said the overnight operation involved more than 150 aircraft and had the singular goal of seizing Maduro.
Cuse said the writers focused on long-standing geopolitical tensions, not forecasting outcomes
The Jack Ryan storyline focused on a fictional Venezuelan president whose regime is accused of rigging elections, looting the country’s vast oil and mineral wealth, and plunging the nation into humanitarian crisis
Trump shared a picture of Maduro in the custody of US forces
A fire is seen at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, following a series of explosions in Caracas on January 3
Maduro, who had survived a failed coup, military defections, mass protests and years of US sanctions, was captured alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, and flown out of the country to face drug and weapons charges in New York.
Trump later announced the operation’s success on Truth Social, declaring that the United States had ‘successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela.’
Trump later revealed he had followed the raid in real time, even comparing it to entertainment.
‘He was in a very highly guarded… like a fortress actually,’ Trump said.
Trump also stunned allies and adversaries alike as he declared the United States would effectively ‘run’ Venezuela for an unspecified transitional period, leaving open the possibility of US troops on the ground.
